


Forever is a long time (but I wouldn't mind spending it by your side)

by xCloudy_1412



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Angst, Canon compliant-ish, Hurt and comfort, M/M, Multi Chapter crammed into a One Shot, Shrunk!Shinichi, Takes place 5 years after Shinichi shrunk, Trigger Warnings, life coaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 12:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16475789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xCloudy_1412/pseuds/xCloudy_1412
Summary: "Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?"Wherein Kaito works for a suicide hotline and gets a nightly call from a very familiar yet unfamiliar person, along multiple encounters that will shape his world, for better or for worse. Only Fate can tell.





	Forever is a long time (but I wouldn't mind spending it by your side)

**Author's Note:**

> It hit me at 5AM in the morning that I can't write anything remotely romantic without a huge plot mess preceding it first.
> 
> I have serious trigger warnings for this fic including suicide. If you get triggered by this, I highly suggest you press the back button. Kaito works at a Help (Suicide) Hotline and these topics are sorta? inevitably? unavoidable. Other warnings include language, grammatical errors and misspellings but if you're alright with all of the things I've listed, read on!
> 
>  **Pairings here are sort of queer and more implied than given so take it with a grain of salt** , but I hope you like it~!

_"Kaito, I'd like to say that I owe you and I'm thankful for you taking my shift. You can be a good friend sometimes."_

"Oh gods, don't say things that aren't characteristically like you, sounds like a nightmare. Disgusting, ugh."

_"I take it back, I'm not grateful or in debt to you. In fact, I think you'll work just fine on the graveyard shift, given your nighttime job. Rot in hell, please."_

"Get off your white horse, Hakuba. We've known each other for 5 years, that KID joke's old and rotten already."

_"Still planning on denying it? I see, very well then. I've got to attend a magic show early next morning, ta-ta!"_

The line went dead and Kaito heaved a heavy sigh. 

"Damn, Hakuba. I bet he did this on purpose," Kaito collapsed on top of his messy desk filled with books and papers, "Who goes to Jamaica in October? Who in the right mind would willingly want to get sunburn?" 

"Kaito! It's ten, I'll be leaving first!" Aoko chimed out, stamping her time card and waltzing towards the exit, "The new intern's coming in a bit. I'll leave the orientation to you, kay?" She flashed Kaito a bright smile (that would have made him melt if he was still the hormonal teenager he was years ago), edged with stifled laughs and mockery. "Don't go falling asleep on your job now! Bye bye~." With a shut of the padded door, Kaito was left alone in the office. 

"Just another job, just another job." Kaito repeated to himself as he flipped through a book, "Gah! I've read through this already," He grumbled and shut the book, standing to return it to the mini library by the side of the office. 

As he stood, the door yawned open and in came a timid man (with the frailest build known to man and Kaito's cycled through multiple disguises involving weak and frail people), no older than Kaito with black hair and wide rimmed glasses. 

"Hondou Eisuke?" Kaito asked, returning his book and facing the fidgeting newcomer.

"Y-Yes." 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kuroba Kaito and I'm sort of the temporary supervisor for this shift so talk to me if you have any questions or need advice," Kaito offered a hand along with a long smile that creased the corner of his eyes, "Welcome to Melpomene's, Min's for short. Glad to have you onboard." 

Eisuke's grip was light and shaky, Kaito had to give an extra grip or else the other's hand would have let go halfway through a shake. 

"I know that you're nervous, it's your first time here after all so I'll run you through everything." The look on Eisuke's face could only be described as utter almost comedic relief. 

"Melpomene's is a suicide hotline, I'm sure you know of this." Kaito gave Eisuke a glance, watching as the intern sobered up. "Our job is to cater to whoever calls our hotline, not necessarily those looking to take their own lives. It's a mixed crowd and it's our job to care for them." 

Eisuke nodded, "Yes, I understand." 

"So, think of this place as a 24/7 customer service, yeah? You have a phone, a computer to research things and books to help you better your work. My desk is that one over there, with the _'Hakuba is a douchebag'_ nameplate on it." Kaito pointed at the huge metal plate standing proudly on top of Kaito's temporary work desk. "Approach it if you need help or on break but if you're on the job, I need your utmost attention fixed on your phone. I wouldn't want any missed chances." 

"S-Sir," Eisuke timidly spoke up, settling down on his cubicle, "Hmm?" Kaito hummed in response, picking up a few books for Eisuke to read. "What if we fail to help?"

Kaito halted his movements, feeling the anxiety and nervousness radiating from the intern and sadly, Kaito emitted the same type of feelings (just more well-hidden because if he didn't have such a good poker face, he would have cried in one of his heists already). 

"We call the precinct," Kaito started slowly, placing the books down and staring into the other's dark eyes, "We inform them of the victim's death, we file a report and we close the case." Eisuke didn't seem to be satisfied with Kaito's answers and he couldn't blame the intern really. 

"If we do succeed," Kaito was quick to change topics in an attempt to give Eisuke a better view, "We ask for a follow through, if the caller agrees. The agent in charge will go to wherever the caller resides and sort things out, counsel and alleviate the situation. That's probably the best case scenario here." Eisuke nodded stiffly, lips down turned like an opposite crescent. 

"Hey," Kaito placed a hand on the other's shoulder, "What's important here is that you try, you try with all your might and if it still falls short," He took a small, short breath, his other hand shook slightly but he caught himself before he could remember any unwanted ~~buried~~ memories, "Then it's out of your hands." 

Eisuke didn't venture any further as he nodded his head, eyes locked on the pile of books ready for him to read. "I'll do my best." The intern spoke softly, as if doubting himself and Kaito couldn't reassure him nor could he dispute him because their job wasn't really all sunshine and rainbows. 

"I'll be by my desk," Kaito threw a thumb towards the direction of his desk and slowly strode away, eyes trained on the intern as if to make sure Eisuke would be alright. 

Sometimes, Kaito wondered why people took such a job like this one. It was mentally tasking and had high demands, it wasn't the type of job you could just sit through and laze around with for the entire day, or in their case; night. But nonetheless, Kaito admired the interns and new coworkers who volunteer to take the job, especially when they know what they're getting into. 

Graveyard shifts, although, were scary, Kaito knew from the amount of things Hakuba's talked to him about. 

It was also an unspoken law that everyone in Melpomene's is each other's therapists. 

Only the workers know about the callers and what they've divulged. Only the workers can talk about it amongst themselves so obviously, agents need to have a way to destress themselves and just spill loads of emotions and worries on others and who else to do so to other than your coworkers? 

Back to the main topic, nighttime shifts were the scariest because Kaito knew it was the type of time people would entertain _those_ types of thoughts. When it was dark and quiet, almost eerily so. Hopefully, tonight would be a slow night.

The first call of the shift happened at 1:30, ringing by Eisuke's desk and Kaito gave the intern an encouraging thumbs up.

"H-Hello? This is Melpomene's Suicide Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?" Eisuke's voice was quivering and evidently nervous, it seemed to worsen as the call continued on. "U-Uhm, I'm Eisuke and I'll be your aid for tonight." 

Kaito bore holes at the back of the intern's head, momentarily considering tampering with a listening device. 

"P-Please calm down, take deep breaths. Breathe with me, okay?" Eisuke took deep breaths, "Inhale..... Exhale..... Inhale..... Exhale," The exercise seemed to be effective as both Eisuke and the caller calmed down, "You're doing great, let's go again. Breathe with me?" After another set of deep breaths, Eisuke had completely calm down. Kaito couldn't help but breathe his own exhale. 

"I'm here," Eisuke responded, "I won't hang up, I promise. I'm here to help you." Kaito fidgeted with his pack of cards, ears straining to hear Eisuke who sat 7 desks away from him.

"It's okay, it's alright." Eisuke cooed nonsensical words into the phone, something told Kaito that the intern would do very well as a full timer. "Could you tell me what's wrong, Miss.......? Miss Chio? That's a lovely name you got there," If anyone else tried that line it would have sounded like a horrible pick-up line but Eisuke's voice made it sound so genuinely complimenting. 

"How was your day, Miss Chio? I'm all ears and I'd love to listen to everything you have to say." Kaito let himself smile softly as Eisuke conversed with his client, relaxing back on his swivel chair. 

"It was nice talking to you, Miss Chio. I'm sure tomorrow would be better, just try your best okay?" Eisuke smiled into the plastic telephone before hanging up with a deep exhale and a slump. 

"Great job!" Kaito chirped, approaching the intern to give him a strong pat on the back, "Not bad for your first time!" He settled down on a seat beside Eisuke, propping a hand up and resting his chin on it. "Thank you." Eisuke replied sheepishly, giving Kaito a wry smile.

"So let's commence it," Kaito started, Eisuke's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Commence what exactly, sir?" 

"Kuroba's fine. Sir makes me feel ten times older than usual," He waved his hand dismissively, 

"We're commencing the traditional FT3 which stands for 'First-Troubles-Therapy-Talk' if you're wondering," Kaito conjured two mugs out of nowhere, "I do wonder...." Eisuke trailed off as he graciously accepted the mug of hot chocolate. 

"Surely, you've got pent-up worries after listening to your client's worries, right? And since we can't broadcast those things to outsiders, the only people you can talk to are fellow coworkers so lay it on me, kid." Eisuke blinked and squinted at Kaito's pet name for him.

"We're the same age....?" Eisuke trailed off with a sigh, "Never mind, I guess I do have worries." Kaito quirked an expectant eyebrow towards the intern, taking a slow sip from his diabetes inducing drink ready for whatever _I don't think I'm cut out for this job — There's so much sadness in the world — I wish I could do better but I can't._ melodrama Eisuke was about to belt out, based on experience, the first FT3 would usually let Kaito determine if he should send an intern/coworker home.

"Do you think Miss Chio would be able to sleep alright tonight?" Eisuke asked with a worried frown on his pale lips and Kaito promptly choked on his hot chocolate.

Hacking, Kaito hit his sternum a few times to get the liquid out of the wrong track. "What?" Kaito rasped out, tongue heavily sweet against the bottom of his mouth. 

"Do you think Miss Chio, my client, would be able to sleep alright tonight? I mean, I think I did pretty badly, admittedly I almost sent myself into a panic attack at the start of the phone call but I managed to catch myself and Miss Chio didn't mind it much plus she seemed alright towards the end of our conversation but I worry that she might have a relapse later on," Eisuke blinked after 30 seconds of intense staring, 

"Are you alright, Sir— er, Kuroba-san? You look a little oxygen deprived..." 

"I'm fine!" Kaito rushed in, gasping for breath having realized that he literally stopped breathing from surprise, "Is that all your worries?" Eisuke nodded with a small troubled look, "No _'I hate the world and its cruel ways'_ or _'That was the most depressing stuff I've ever heard, I don't think I can handle another one?_ , that's it?" 

Eisuke bobbed his head, "That's all. Is something wrong?" 

"No, just a little shocked. Most newcomers bawl like babies on their first calls is all." Kaito shook his head and tried to regain his casual demeanor by crossing his legs and sipping pretentiously at his miraculously warm cocoa. "If you're worried, you could follow through tomorrow? Did you get an address or a phone number?"

"Yes, I asked for them just in case." Eisuke seemed satisfied with Kaito's suggestion but Kaito, oh the team leader didn't know whether to freak out or celebrate. "T-That's all?" He repeated again and Eisuke looked mildly annoyed by his repetitiveness, "Yes, Kuroba-san."

"I'll go back to my desk now," Kaito stood up looking as if a baby just did complex calculus in front of him, collecting the mugs and magically poofing them away. "I forgot to mention but we have a snooze room, it's by the kitchen and you can sleep there on your breaks." The man pointed at the sound-proof door by the marble kitchen, "Trust me, once it reaches three you'll need some sleep." 

Eisuke didn't argue and instead trudged to the snooze room with a small wave and a bow, leaving Kaito by himself in the main office. 

"Way to make it feel like a ghost town," Kaito grumbled and clicked a few random videos on YT, letting his speakers blast out in max volume. Aah, the benefits of a sound-proof room.

At exactly 2AM, Kaito's phone rang. Halting his rather beautiful rendition of _'Je vuex vivre '_ and he was doing such a great job at those sopranos (and the bass too, mind you. He had a wonderful pitch range). Pausing the video, Kaito calmed himself and picked the phone up, 

"Hello, good morning. This is Melpomene's Help Hotline, how may I be of service to you tonight?"

The other side of the phone was silent, save for the breaths close to the phone and quieter, shallow snores further away from it. "I'm Kaito, your aid for tonight." Kaito continued slowly, carefully modulating his voice to a soft, soothing pitch. "Is there anything I could help you with?" 

He swore he heard dials turning and shuffling happening on the other line but Kaito wasn't quite sure. _"S-Sorry,"_ The caller finally spoke, in a low, _male_ voice. _"My friend set your hotline on speed dial and I accidentally pressed it."_ Kaito's never heard of his voice before but the air and way he held his tone sounded something akin to someone he's met in the past, weird.

"No worries!" Kaito chirped out with a smile, feeling guiltily relieved that his first client of the night wasn't someone who purchased a handgun for more reasons than self-defense. "We don't mind at all," Both sides fell quiet as if contemplating whether to hang up or not, or in Kaito's case, silently kicking himself for being such a bad conversationalist.

"How was your day, Mister?" Kaito's been working as a call agent for 3 years now and he could still _taste_ how unbelievably cringe-worthy his words were. 

_"Ryu."_ The voice insisted after literally a minute of silence.

"Mister Ryu," Kaito quite liked the name, very short and very cute, "How was your day?" 

_"Fine."_ Something told Kaito that Mister Ryu didn't really want to talk to him.

"I see," Kaito kept his smile from turning into a grimace, "That sounds lovely! I suppose nothing life threatening happened over the course of it?" Was he breaking unspoken trigger codes in the office?

 _"If I were injured, why'd I accidentally dial a suicide hotline?"_ Kaito would love to crawl into the phone, travel to the other side and smack him a good one. 

"True," He let out a string of carefully mastered laughs, "Very true, you would probably be in the hospital instead, hooked on an IV bleeding with broken bones." Yeah, he was breaking a lot of codes. _"Haha."_ Mister Ryu was not amused it seemed.

 _"Although,"_ Mister Ryu spoke up with hesitance after a long minute of contemplation, _"I do have a problem..."_

Now they were talking, this was what Kaito's job was supposed to be. "Really? Care to share, dear? I'm all ears." He could hear splutters from the other line, some sounding suspiciously childish as the source of the voice moved away from the phone. 

_"No pet names,"_ Mister Ryu growled out, "Okay, noted." Kaito nodded his head despite not really wanting to because pet names always did the trick when it came to callers.

 _"I've been experiencing difficulties with a friend, it's a tough case I can't really seem to solve,"_ Mister Ryu started with a sigh, Kaito fell silent, humming lowly to let the other know that he was still listening, (although where has he heard that phrase before?) _"I haven't seen them in a while due to work issues and they think I'm lying. I call them every now and then but slowly they're drifting away and moving on, I don't know whether I should be happy for them or sad..."_

"I see," So much for the rich asshole facade Kaito imagined Mister Ryu to be, now he felt bad for thinking like that. "That sounds like a predicament there, let's go through it together okay?" He heard a faint rumble of response from the other line.

"Presumably, this is a very close friend?"

_"Yeah, something like that."_

"Very dear and precious to you?" _'Dare I say, possibly your romantic interest?'_

_"Very much so."_

"You haven't seen them in a long while and they've been waiting for you to come back but you haven't been able to do so?"

_"Yes, are you going to just repeat what I said?"_

Kaito let out a silent huff, what a snarky caller! "Sorry, I'm just making sure." If Kaito entered a PR contest, he would win by a landslide with how fake his voice sounded. 

"Do you wish for their happiness?" Mister Ryu didn't reply as fast as the other questions, Kaito waited with a bated breath.

 _"Yes."_ The other finally breathed out in segments, as if hard to say.

"Do you think they'll be able to live their life to the fullest and happiest waiting for you to come back?"

_"I doubt it."_

"Do you think they'll achieve happiness by letting go of you and in turn, you letting go of them?" Kaito wanted to laugh, the topic reminded him so much of his and Aoko's relationship a long time ago. 

_"I think so..."_

"Then maybe," Kaito started slowly, trying not to offend the other, "It's time to let go, in a relationship it's always give-and-take, never take-and-take. You mustn't keep on expecting the other party to wait for you forever, that would be a tad bit selfish." Now Kaito wasn't sure if he was talking about Mister Ryu's relationship or his own anymore, ugh he wanted sleep. 

"I think you should clear things out with your friend, don't you think? Make things a clean slate and start over from there, or don't start at all. If what's going on between you two causes great pain to both sides, it might be better to let go." Kaito attempted to distract himself with a random book, the topic was making him a little bit uncomfortable now, _bedtime stories for adolescents and children_ , one sheep, two sheep, three sheep, black sheep—

 _"You may be right."_ Mister Ryu finally replied, startling Kaito who thought he thought the other hung up already. _"You may be right, maybe it's time to let go. I've been taking advantage of their kindness, expecting them to keep holding on forever but I never realized how much pain I caused just by selfishly wishing for that."_ Mister Ryu's voice was soft now, as if swallowing back a lump. Kaito hummed, bracing himself for whatever waterworks might come in a few seconds. 

_"Thank you,"_ Mister Ryu whispered with a small hint of smile that caused a grin to bloom on Kaito's face too, _"Kaito, I gained a new perspective tonight, goodnight."_

The line went dead before Kaito could follow-up questions and queries. 

"That was....." Kaito blinked and listened to the dead tone, "Weird." Just as Eisuke emerged from the Snooze Room, "Kuroba-san?" Eisuke questioned out with a bewildered expression as Kaito walked pass him, cradling his head and mumbling incoherent words. "U-Uhm?" Kaito walked pass him and into the Snooze Room, leaving Eisuke confused and oddly worried. "Don't mind him," A newly awakened Koizumi Akako tsk'ed out, "He does that whenever he's deep in thought." "O-Okay." Eisuke flushed a light pink and scurried back to his desk, failing to notice the predatory smirk that crept onto Akako's sharp features. "Say, newbie? Why don't I tell you an interesting story...."

Meanwhile, Kaito threw himself into one of the soft pods and snugly wrapped himself in the white comforter, listening to the faint hum of the AC as he fell asleep.

* * *

_"You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down." — Ichiro Yamada_

* * *

The following day, Nakamori Aoko was greeted by a sleep-deprived Eisuke and a laughing Akako. 

"Please tell me you didn't tell him those ghost stories." Aoko sighed as she timed in, placing her bag down on her desk and stalking towards the shaking Eisuke. 

"Hondo-kun? Hi, I'm Nakamori Aoko. Supervisor for the day shift? Your shift's over you can leave now?" Eisuke squeaked and bolted out of the door, nearly knocking over a potted plant on his way out. "Which one did you tell him?" Aoko hissed at the giggling seductress, "Don't tell me it's the one for the Snooze Room." 

"Let's just say that he won't be sleeping for the next forty eight hours, oh ho ho ho~!" Akako let out a shrill laugh as she careened out of the office leaving Aoko sighing and banging her head against her wooden desk. 

"Good morning to you too, Aoko." Kaito remarked, amused. "I'm guessing Akako scared the shit out of Eisuke, poor kid." The thief brewed himself a cup of sweet coffee, towel haphazardly hanging around his neck. 

"It's the Snooze Room Tragedy, Kaito. The Snooze Room!" Aoko exclaimed with a slightly crazed look that would have had Kaito running for his life if he didn't know Aoko for more than 80% of his childhood. "Ouch, bad choice." Kaito winced, remembering the first time Akako pulled him to the side of the Snooze Room just to sermon a long-ass ghost story to him and Kaito would never admit it but he didn't sleep in the Snooze Room for the next couple of months because of it and he had valid reasons! This was Akako, Heiress of Red Magic? Wicked Witch of Ekoda? Ghosts technically fall under her category??

"So," Aoko started after 5 minutes of hysterics, "You live here now."

"Haha, very funny." Kaito rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out, "I left the office for like, an hour to get breakfast at Denny's, personal opinion but IHOP has better pancakes." 

Aoko let out a snicker and turned her attention towards her computer screen, logging in all her social media accounts (which wasn't allowed but everyone's way past caring about breaking computer rules now) and checking her inboxes. "Oh my gods, Ran-chan's considering taking my late night law class!" Kaito swore he heard pigs being butchered. 

"Those shitty two-bit lectures you hold in Tokyo University, debating whether or not KID's activities are legal or not? I thought your lady crush was better than that." 

"They _are_ illegal, we study about other law related topics and Ran-chan is **not** my lady crush." Aoko gave Kaito a deadly beam, "And, as a matter of fact, there are over a hundred people who agree with my point."

"Versus what? A million supporters of KID?" Kaito sipped his cocoa like how Hakuba did it with his tea; pinky finger held aloft in an annoyingly straight manner, chest puffed out, slow slurping with overly pronounced noises and with his legs crossed. 

"On the topic of KID," Aoko sighed out, digging through her Hermes Birkin, a gift from Kaito that Aoko had the audacity to flash at the giver because she knew Kaito spent all of his thirteenth month pay on it as a peace offering for his untimely confessions (both romantically and about his secret life). "He sent a heist notice for tonight and I'm pretty sure he's insane." The lady gave Kaito a pointed stare, one the man chose to ignore completely, Aoko held out a photocopy of the very thorough heist notice (time, date and gem included! What a kind heist notice).

"He's not insane," Kaito huffed and crossed his arms.

"You're right, he's not insane. He's a suicidal maniac," Aoko agreed with a piercing tone, borderline glaring at Kaito like he was the spawn of a low class goblin.

"Not suicidal, not insane." Kaito defended once more with a pout, "He's just daring, I bet." 

"I can tell," Aoko remarked flatly, rolling her eyes so far Kaito caught a good glimpse of what a demonic possession would look like in real life. "I hope KID won't overwork himself with all these heists and in betweens." Her words hid a deeper meaning and Kaito seriously regretted his life choices at the moment. 

"Oh look," Kaito attempted to redirect his friend — mom —'s attention, "The convenience store downstairs finally restocked on that flan, Queen's Pudding, you love so much." 

"Flan, maybe? I'll go buy some. Just a hundred yen per cup." Aoko deadpanned, she knew Kaito was a penny away from being broke and was just surviving on hot cocoa and whatever Min's fridge had left for him. Thankfully, or maybe unfortunately, the telephone rang and Aoko tore her gaze away from the epic stare-athon she one-sidedly initiated with Kaito. 

"Hi, this is Melpomene's Suicide Hotline. How may I be of service to you today?" Kaito cleverly chose the right moment to bolt out of the office just as Aoko turned her back to fetch a book on her desk. So much for 'daringly defiant', he's definitely changing KID's slogan to 'cowardly with no willpower but still manages to get by through dumb luck' someday.

His heist was located at a rooftop penthouse that had 'Millennial' smacked on it like a warning beacon. Judging by the abstract metal framings caging sepia colored light bulbs, obscene comic book style portraits lining the walls with ugly yellow and brown color combinations, nonsense sculptures of vague figures (one looked like a pokemon monstrosity but the title called it 'The Breeze, Calming and Relaxing'), brick walls infused with weird marble chunks and your ever present inspirational quotes hanging by the entrance. 

"If first you don't suck seed. Try, try, try again? Who the fuck gave the go signal for this?" Kaito grumbled quietly, hanging out at the top of the penthouse, readying his bombs. The offending quotation hung at the door and it seems that even Inspector Nakamori hated it, judging by his high strung brows and twitching mustache. 

"Gotta make this heist quick, need to be at Min's by 11 or else Akako's gonna suspect me again and Aoko's gonna be so smug." It took him an entire year to get Akako off his back and another half year just to get her to stop hexing his heists and Kaito wasn't so keen on going through that rigorous phase ever again.

"KID's heist notice said he'll steal the Heart's Passion at exactly 10 o'clock, keep your guard up and always pinch your buddy!" 

Kaito snickered and fixed his gas mask, counting down to the last 5 seconds on the clock and as the clock struck 10, Kaito jumped down from the roof's ledge and quickly released a smoke bomb, running through the crowd and releasing sleeping gas on his way to the display case.

 _'Be like Sonic, Kaito. Be faster than that, be Sanic, become the meme—'_ KID sprinted towards display case, squinting past the murky smoke. The display case was obviously heavily guarded. Latticed laser work, triple locked and one 12 year old Edogawa Conan sitting on top of the case. 

"KID," Conan greeted against his own gas mask, fastened with multiple Velcro straps.

"Tantei-kun," KID nodded his head, plastering on his usual neutral smile, humming a tune as he produced a compact mirror, skillfully angling the laser to hit the (badly hidden) control box, shorting it and disabling the lasers. The thief momentarily halted to remove his gas mask just as the gas cleared out.

"Care to get off of the case for me? Maybe make my job easier, dear?" Conan seemed to waver for a moment, as if tittering on the edge of legal and illegal. 

"If you allow yourself to get shot with a tranquilizer, yes." Damn, no rooms for negotiation. KID could live with that. "You make my life so hard, Tantei-kun." He shuffled through his arsenal of weapons and decided for a simple, but efficiently quick, tackle.

"O-Oi!" Conan shrieked as KID literally launched himself at the elementary detective and pinned him against the wall, "There." KID sang out, marveling in his quick time ribbon-hell-makeshift handcuffs-pink bow-sleight-of-hand magic trick he did. 

"KID!" Conan exclaimed, standing with much difficulty because his legs were wrapped in red satin silk with a huge bow on it. "Sorry to cut our fun short, Tantei-kun. I have quite a busy schedule tonight and I don't have the luxury to dilly-dally." 

"What type of things do you even do?" Conan spat out, wiggling and squirming with also badly hidden curiosity. 

"Talking to people," KID rolled his eyes, picking the locks for a few moments before retracting his pins and carefully extracting the jewel, bugged with a small tracker, courtesy of Conan. 

"Yeah right," Conan continued the chatter, obviously moving closer to the sharp jagged edge of a glass figurine by the side. "I wouldn't try that if I were you, I rigged those handcuffs to release sleeping powder in the air if torn." 

KID triumphantly held the gem up to the moonlight (although not-so-triumphantly putting it down a second later because it wasn't Pandora again), aware that Nakamori was waking up and he really didn't have time to coddle the inspector because it was 10:20 and the walk (or sprint) to Min's was at tops, 40 minutes away and KID really didn't want magical creatures popping up on his next heist.

"KID!" Conan called out, literally maneuvering himself like a worm towards the edge of the rooftop where KID was preparing to catapult himself into the inky sky. "Tantei-kun, have your guardians ever told you that staying up this late could lead to insomnia in later years?"

"What would you know?" The actual kid hissed back as he leaned against the concrete railing of the rooftop, a few feet away from a cautious KID who, mind you Conan, actually knew a thing or two or tens, fine a hundred facts about Insomnia because it was a rather favorite side effect of the callers in his job (and maybe he experienced it himself during his earlier teenage years).

"I don't know, Tantei-kun. I just read about it on the Internet," KID shrugged, pressing the switch on his belt and spreading his hang glider ready for flight. "But I'm sure Ran-neechan would get worried about you so hurry along now, mwah~!" He threw a provocative raspberry towards the small detective who just grimaced and shook his tiny head. "That really isn't important right now."

"Oh? Well, let's leave that topic for another day, okay? Let's meet again, Tantei-kun." KID threw himself backwards, into the open air and letting the wind take him as close as he could get to Min's.

As KID left, Conan watched as Nakamori woke up, scanned his surroundings and proceeded to throw a hissy fit that beat even Conan's carefully articulated fits.

"Kudo-kun," Haibara greeted him as the adults cleared out, she brought a small butter knife (sharpened slightly, enough to cut through the ribbons Conan was wrapped in). "I thought you were resting at home. I specifically asked you to rest in preparation for your stupid plan tomorrow." Conan huffed and crossed his now free arms. (The ribbons didn't have sleeping powder, he should have known it was a bluff!)

Conan could only briskly walked pass her and made his way downstairs with a stubborn pout and Haibara followed with a silent chuckle. 

"Shit, shit, fucking pumpernickel." Kaito quickly shed his white attire, stuffing it in his top hat and depositing it into the nearest incinerator before sprinting towards Min's. "Another 5 minutes," He counted down as he rounded a corner. He was still 4 street and a block away from his office and his average running speed could only guarantee that he'll get there in another 10 minutes and gods, he missed Jii. He missed Jii's car, why didn't he ever consider getting a driver's license?? Oh yeah, because he was broke beyond comparison from buying Blue Parrot a few months ago. 

Kaito whined as he ran as fast as he could, jumping over car hoods and cars in general as he beat the red light which ended in a self realization that he could probably be the half priced Asian version of Usain Bolt because he made it to Min's in a record breaking 5 minutes. 

"S-Safe," The thief gasped out, falling face first on the carpeted floor of Melpomene's where a smug Aoko waited at. 

"Regretting your life choices yet?" Aoko sang out with a tone that was purely sadistic, 

"Regretting approaching you at the clock tower, maybe." Kaito fired back weakly, crawling over to the direction of the Snooze Room. 

"D-Don't go in there!" Eisuke squeaked out with a horrified expression, "Koizumi-san said that tonight was a night of destinies and those that seek slumber will fall into death and twisted revelations!" 

Kaito must have looked like a old, wilting person because Aoko took pity on him and guided him to a nearby couch and handed him a cup of cold water. "Never listen to Akako-chan," Aoko chided Eisuke, "She just loves to tease newcomers!"

"Oh? What's all this gossip about me?" Talk about 'speak of the she-devil and she shall appear'. 

Akako stood by the Snooze Room with a smirk painted on her ruby red lips, wearing an imposingly long slitted dress that was definitely not meant for working. "Going somewhere, She-Devil?" Kaito spat out from his comfy spot at the couch, head lolling back against the padded walls. "Call me that again and they'll never find a shred of your existence." Akako wore an angelic smile, opposite of her venom-laden words. "I'll be going out for a bit, I'll leave my job to you~." With a high pitched laugh, Akako linked arms with Aoko and went her merry way out of the office, leaving Kaito and Eisuke alone.

"I'm gonna go sleep." Kaito stated nonchalantly, waltzing over to the Snooze Room much to Eisuke's horror." "Dude, chill. It's just a room, not the gates to hell." The thief sighed as Eisuke hid feebly behind his cubicle, Kaito shrugged and entered the room. As expected, it was normal. Nothing out of place and no weird runes or enchantments, Akako must have been lying.

"Stupid She-Devil." Kaito mumbled, flush against his throw pillow. His muscles were aching for overuse (he liked to take his heists slow and planned, never rushed okay?) and his brain screamed 'Sleep!' Because he was that weak and so gentle sleep washed over him like a calming embrace, enticing him into a dreamland where Touichi and Pandora were waiting for him.

He woke up sometime 1:40 with Eisuke fearfully peeking into the room as if to check if Kaito was still in one piece and not torn into a weird mutilated corpse like the ones Hakuba liked to showcase in his free time. "G'morning." Kaito yawned out against a mouthful of comforter, Eisuke seemed relieved that the supervisor was somewhat alive but horrified to discover that Kaito's general rat nest of a hair could progress further into something worse, like something akin to a bird deciding to elope with a rat and raise babies together. 

"No one's called so far," Eisuke informed with a hint of relief, Kaito nodded and went to retrieve a mushy twinkie from the fridge. "Mmh." Kaito collapsed on his desk with a loud yawn, rubbing his eyes and slapping himself awake. "Koizumi-san hasn't returned yet," Eisuke added with more relief than his earlier statement which Kaito could, regrettably, relate to. "I went to Miss Chio's house today," Eisuke informed with a small smile, "She seems to be holding up, I'm glad I was of some help." Kaito gave a similar smile at the successful follow through. 

"Go take a break, I'll wake you up at three." Eisuke seemed disgusted and traumatized (at the same time, wow what a feat) at Kaito's suggestion.

"I slept in there and I'm perfectly fine! Gods, Eisuke. Akako's just pulling your leg, now go get some rest!" Kaito shooed the unwilling intern into room and promptly locked the door from the outside, "Get some shut eye and I'll wake you up at three!" The thief called out, despite the room being sound-proof. 

He sat back down on his desk and idly watched the clock tick on, striking 2AM then the phone rang scaring the living hell out of Kaito.

"Hello? Melpomene's Help Hotline, how may I be of service to you tonight?" He coughed into his fist in an attempt to muffle the unmanly squeak that came out of his mouth.

 _"Good evening."_ Ah, it was the man from yesterday. Mister Ryu, if Kaito remembered correctly.

"Good evening to you too! I'm Kaito, your aid for tonight." Today, Mister Ryu sounded even more stressed out than before. 

_"I could infer that. You have the same voice as last night's aid,"_ Kaito could literally hear the other's eye roll through the phone. 

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Keep it cool, Kaito, keep it cool. 

_"Nothing of importance, really."_ Then why in the world was he calling a Suicide Hotline? Kaito could be talking to other far worse people in need of help. 

"Really now? How'd your day go then?" Kaito clicked open a few browsers, searching for soft kittens and cute puppies because he needed that extra patience with this client. 

_"For most of the part, I think my day went pretty well. Your advice last night helped quite a lot and I wanted to thank you again for it,"_ Now Kaito was being a huge douche in his own head, he stubbornly reminded himself that Mister Ryu was indeed a human with a full set of emotions and not some stuck-up alien who likes speaking like a British noble in the Marie Antoinette era.

"Don't mention it, always happy to help." He replied, a little kinder this time. "If you have any more worries I'll listen to them." 

_"Thank you,"_ Mister Ryu seemed a lot more comfortable than yesterday, _"I'll keep that in mind but would it be alright if we just talked tonight?"_ His voice grew gradually softer as if afraid to release those words and Kaito couldn't help but smile, "Sure, I'll start." 

"My day was pretty tiring, I work double shifts here for morning and graveyard plus I'm a part-time magician so you can only imagine how wrecked I am right now," Kaito was pleased with himself for having elicited a short chuckle from the other man, "But as tiring as it was, I had fun. I ran into an old friend today and despite our short time together it reminded me of how much I like them." He made a mental note to make his next heist slow just so that he could entertain Conan a little bit more and maybe apologize for leaving him in that ribbon hell, "How about you? How was your day?"

 _"Pretty similarly, actually."_ Mister Ryu commented rather surprised, _"I guess you could call it a rather normal one if you ignore some facts."_

"What type of job do you have, Mister Ryu?" He didn't reply for a second and Kaito wondered if he overstepped a boundary, _"I work as a freelance detective, sometimes I work for the Tokyo Police Department, sometimes Headquarters and occasionally the FBI."_ Oh wow, way to amp the job game. Maybe Hakuba knows him.

"That sounds like a handful, solving mysteries and bringing criminals to justice." Kaito remarked rather flatly, he didn't feel quite comfortable talking to a detective because hello, he was an internationally wanted phantom thief? Cops weren't exactly his best of friends? At least he wasn't for the Interpol.

 _"And maybe Interpol too."_ Fuck him raw, Kaito shouldn't be talking to this man. 

"That's amazing! I take it you're a wonderful detective," Speaking through the skin of his teeth, Kaito grimaced. Interpol, FBI and local departments?! What if this was some undercover detective who's in charge of ratting him out? Kaito caught himself and reminded his stupid brain that not all detectives were interested in catching phantom thieves (although he did have Hakuba, Conan, occasionally a Kudo Shinichi helping Conan and a Hattori Heiji on his tail but hey, they weren't the only detectives in the world) and the man on the other side was most probably just an innocent worker who needed some unwinding. "But it must be tough, do you get enough rest?"

 _"I guess so, but seeing as I'm talking to you at two in the morning and I wake up at around seven, I can't really say for sure."_ Kaito let out a short chuckle, "True. Should we cut this chat short, Mister Ryu?" 

_"I don't mind, keep going."_

"Well then, today I discovered that I can compete with Usain Bolt for the 'Fastest Human Alive' title seeing as how fast I ran to beat the tardy buzzer." Kaito grinned at the sound of muffled chuckles, "And I watched some telenovelas about this ghost that goes around possessing everything that breathes just to spite her twin who's dating the guy she likes. Trust me, it doesn't seem as deep as I make it sound." Aoko trying to be the devil incarnate while struggling to speak Latin but ended up saying 'Ventus, Terra, Aqua' again and again was scarier than that cursed telenovela. "Your turn~." 

_"For today, I managed to sneak a cup of coffee for lunch and I read through 'The Valley of Fear'. I quite enjoyed reading it for the four hundredth time."_ Kaito was definitely asking Hakuba if he knew someone named 'Ryu' because _'The Valley of Fear'_ sounded suspiciously like something Hakuba's cried about at least twice in their 5 years of friendship.

"Ooh, care to tell me what happens in it?"

 _"Read it for yourself, idiot."_ Kaito's eye twitched as the onset of a migraine threatened to send him into oblivion, "But I don't have the time to do so." 

_"PDF, Ebooks, videos, audio books and what nots. There are a lot of ways you could view it."_ Mister Ryu's voice was sarcastic and a tad bit mocking, Kaito wondered if he really needed help.

"Well, what if we're not allowed to access sites other than official government sites and we aren't allowed to download audio files?" The chatter continued on for another hour, Kaito didn't quite realize it until he looked at the bottom corner of his computer screen and saw the time. The thief gaped while Mister Ryu droned on about difficulties in handling a violin bow.

 _"So for every millimeter of the bow you have to constantly recalibrate your pressure at the same time sync it with speed and weight, therefore Detaché and Staccato can be very difficult especially if you're using tip to frog and oh, I didn't notice the time."_ Thank the gods, he noticed. 

Kaito hummed and nodded his head, "You better get some rest, Mister Ryu. The sun's coming up in a little bit, I'm sure you'd like some sleep before jumping into work again." 

_"Yes, I guess so."_ Mister Ryu cleared his throat, _"Again, thank you for humoring me. I forgot to mention but I've taken your advice to heart, I'm planning on doing something tomorrow."_

"Good luck then, I hope everything turns out alright between you and your friend." He sincerely meant that, Kaito really wished that Mister Ryu wouldn't call again for another trouble (despite how lonely it seemed). 

_"Thank you, good night."_ Mister Ryu hung up after what seemed like forever and Kaito let out a soft sigh, reclining his chair and stretching. 

Kaito's eyes snapped open after a short moment of relaxation, "Oh shit, I forgot about Eisuke!" The man scrambled towards the Snooze Room and went over to the unmoving intern. "Eisuke?" Kaito whispered into the other's ear, watching as he squirmed and whimpered. "Eisuke!" He tried again, this time blowing into Eisuke's ear, only to receive a punch that sent him flying backwards and onto the (thankfully) padded walls. 

"K-Kuroba-san?!" Eisuke squeaked out, using his comforter as a makeshift shield, "Are you alright?"

Kaito shot him a disbelieving look. "Yes, Eisuke. My nares are bleeding like it's Aoko's monthly, I'm perfectly fine!" Eisuke stood up and woozily made it over to the supervisor, "Tissue, get tissue!" 

"I'm so sorry!" Eisuke exclaimed as he went to retrieve a bundle cotton balls and tissue, just as he left the phone rang and Kaito cursed his wretched luck.

With one hand cradling his bleeding nose and the other struggling to grip onto the nonexistent railing, Kaito sat himself down and answered the phone. 

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I help you tonight?" Gods, his voice sounded so nasal with all the blood gushing out of his nostril. Wincing, Kaito inspected the bridge of his nose, thankfully it wasn't broken. Eisuke approached guiltily with a roll of tissue and cotton, Kaito accepted the cotton and plugged his nostrils.

 _I'm Hanako."_ Kaito blinked and looked at the plastic phone, the voice was feminine and young. High pitched and innocent, belonging to someone who hasn't reached puberty yet. 

"Hiya Hanako-chan, I'm Kaito." He spoke as clearly as he could which was a difficulty because he was speaking and breathing simultaneously with his mouth at the moment. "Where's your mommy, dear?" 

_"Mama's sleeping in the other room, she left her phone on the counter and I wanted to give it to her but there's a lot of bottles scattered around, I didn't want to wake her up."_ Kaito grimaced, half due to how soaked the cotton ball was in the span of a minute and the other half due to Hanako's predicament. He was guessing an alcoholic mother.

"Okay, dear. Why don't you return her phone tomorrow morning? Where's your daddy?" 

_"He always leaves at night and comes back late in the afternoon."_ Hanako answered in a whisper, a frown evident in her voice. _"I don't like it when Papa's here, he always hurts Mama and says a lot of mean things."_

Eisuke squeaked from his spot beside Kaito and the thief shot him an apologetic look because he had most probably let his poker face slip (to his defense, his nose was bleeding and Hanako was definitely the child of an abusive father) and he must have looked scary. "Is that so? Do you know your address, sweetie? Could you give it to your Kaito-niichan?" 

_"I'm not allowed outside of the house,"_ Hanako whispered sadly and Kaito's heart decided to strangle itself. _"I'm not allowed to leave it because Papa said it was a huge expense to take me outside."_ _What a bastard—_

"Okay then, could you take a look outside the window for me darling? What do you see?" 

_"Uhm. Bushes, trees, a road and a street sign."_

"What does it say?!" Kaito dug through his drawer and pulled out a notepad, ready to scribble down whatever address Hanako gave. _"I can't read it from this angle..."_ Kaito let out a sigh, eyebrow twitching in urgency. "Okay." He repeated for the many-eth time. "Could you describe to me what your house looks like?" 

_"Two stories, white walls, square windows and a brown porch!"_ Hanako chirped with a smile, happy to be able to give so much information but to Kaito, he just heard a general description of a standard Americanized house. 

"Dear, why don't you go to your room?" Kaito suggested with a slight frown, "What does the view from your window look like?"

 _"I see my neighbor's house, they love hanging orchids and pansies by their windowsill."_ Kaito jotted down the information, "What else?" 

_"They also painted their house white and baby blue!"_

"Thank you, darling!" Kaito exclaimed, shooting Eisuke a look who thankfully got it and began to search through Google Earth. "Care to share anything else?" 

_"Uhm, the newspaper we got today celebrated Tokyo Spirits winning? Tokyo Spirits is our pride, Mama said!"_ Bingo! Kaito urged Eisuke to narrow the search.

"Darling, can you give me this phone number?" Hanako fumbled and recited the phone number, Kaito jotted it down. "We'll check up on you from time to time okay? But mostly. We'll try to find your house so sit tight!" 

"That'll all I need to know, dear. Thank you so much, you're such a great girl." Kaito spoke into the phone with a warm smile, nose bleed forgotten even though the clogged up blood was slowly drying up and would most probably be a pain to clean later. "Just you wait, we'll save you and your mother soon!" 

_"Yay~!!"_ Hanako cheered but stopped to let out a series of coughs, _"Sorry, Mama said I had weak lungs, I'm not allowed to get overly excited."_ Kaito was overcome with a strong sense to run around Tokyo and knock on every white house's door. 

"Take care of yourself, okay? Now better get to bed, it's late young lady~." Kaito teased out, eliciting a suppressed giggle from Hanako, _"Yes, sir!"_ He heard the sound of shuffling and rustling. _"Goodnight, Kaito-niichan...."_ Hanako whispered into the phone before drifting off into deep sleep. 

Once Kaito confirmed that Hanako was asleep, he hung up and focused all his attention on Eisuke. "How's the search going?"

"With that vague description? I've catalogued over 300 houses in and around Tokyo that are white. It'll take more than a few days for us to narrow this down, we don't have enough personnel to check." Kaito stared at the messily put together doc that held at least 305 houses with the descriptions Hanako gave. "Then we'll start with the first 50, we'll send Akako out to check them tomorrow." Now all he had to do was find a good enough bribe to get Akako to check through the houses. 

"And Kuroba-san," Eisuke timidly added with a grimace, "Sorry for punching you in the face..." Kaito blinked and brought his attention to the soaked cotton ball in his nose and groaned out loud. "No offense taken," Kaito replied with a pat on the other's shoulder. "At least you didn't break my beautiful nose."

* * *

_"The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole." — Ramuda Amemura_

* * *

"Good morning, Aoko, Akako. Care to tell me when the fuck did you change shifts from grave to morning?" 

"Didn't I ask you to cover for me? It all worked out in the end, right?" Akako arrived with a sleepy Aoko, wearing the same dress she left in but looked more pristine and refreshed than her original state as opposed to Kaito and Eisuke. 

"What happened to you guys? You look like you got mauled by a family of angry meerkats." Despite the huge need to prove Aoko wrong Kaito could not argue with her because it was a pretty damn close description of what they looked like. 

"Oh I don't know, maybe a little kid called at three in the morning and said that she has an abusive father and an alcoholic mother and maybe we've been trying to narrow down our search as much as possible with just the description 'White House next to a blue and white house in Tokyo', what do you **think** Aoko?" Eisuke jolted from his drowsy stupor, banging his head against the wooden desk. "I'm awake! I wasn't sleeping!" 

"Poor kid," Kaito exhaled as he ushered Eisuke to the bathroom to freshen up, "Stuck with me throughout the entire night, didn't get a wink of sleep and despite our valiant efforts we still have over 258 houses to check and this is where I ask you a favor." Swallowing all of his pride, Kaito turned pleadingly towards a smirking Akako. 

"Can you...?" 

"No." Akako answered immediately, the corners of her lips twitched, evidently holding back a triumphant laugh as Kaito despaired. "Please?" The thief whimpered out, doing his best impression of a puppy, Aoko aversely doubled back at the pathetic display of neediness. 

"Maybe if you grovel and call me 'Akako-sama', I might consider it~." Akako cooed with a sadistic look present on her sharp features, Kaito spluttered and hissed. "Or are you telling me that you can search all those houses in your own busy leisure?" Kaito regarded the witch with hatred, biting his lower lip and practically searching for any other viable options. 

"Akako-chan, nice oxymoron!" Aoko squealed out, high-fiving the witch before whispering into her ear. "Oh, and you must also call Aoko as 'Aoko-sama' and treat her to Monte Charles." The thief took in a sharp inhale, Monte Charles was a famous sweets shop by Ekoda High and he really didn't have good memories with it because the last time he took Aoko there, she had emptied the pantries and made Kaito pay for everything, **including** an extra set of boxes and paper bags because _Kaito, they're just so cute!_

"Kuroba-san," The newly showered Eisuke called out with a look akin to desperation, "I know." Kaito exhaled and got on the floor, pressing his forehead against the carpeted ground with his ass stuck up high. 

"Please help me search for Hanako's house, Akako-sama! Aoko-sama!" 

The two ladies burst into laughter, Aoko snapping pictures with her phone and Akako doubling over from too much cackles. "I recorded that!" Akako shrieked out in between cackles, holding her ruby red phone up and replaying the lines. 

"Will you help us?!" Kaito whined out, beet red and embarrassed to the high heavens. Eisuke looked mildly guilty for making his superior do all the begging but that really didn't stop him from letting out his own chuckles. 

"You have my word, Kuroba-kun. I'll start searching later this afternoon." 

Kaito didn't know whether to celebrate or go find the nearest well to jump into but at least they were making progress. "Here's a map of marked houses, all which we need to run through. Hanako-chan described the house beside her's to have orchids and pansies hung by the windows so that might help in your search." Eisuke informed the giggling Akako, handing her a printout of a makeshift map Kaito out together at 5AM in the morning. 

"Jokes aside," Aoko started with a softer tone, eyes darkening into a lackluster silver. "You're serious about this, right Kaito?" Like the day before, her tone held a deeper meaning. Akako nodded in understanding and Eisuke loomed behind Kaito as if to telepathically ask the supervisor what Aoko meant.

"Yes," Kaito answered slowly, "I'm serious about this. I would never take these types of situations as a joke, you know me Aoko." Aoko seemed to relax at his words, Eisuke just got even more confused. "And besides, why would I prostrate myself for you guys for a joke?"

"True." Akako shrugged and walked to the door, "I'll start my investigation later, for now let's all have breakfast." 

Breakfast at a fast food chain was never a pleasant experience, especially if it's 8:30 AM and full of children getting their happy meals before going to school. 

"Here are your orders!" Aoko exclaimed through the shrill cries of children, "Chicken with rice for Akako-chan, Teriyaki Burger, large fries and a medium coke for Hondou-kun, Pancakes and orange juice for Kaito and a good ol' McMuffin and coffee for me." 

"Did you buy chocolate syrup?" 

"Yes."

"Chocolate chips?" 

"Yes." 

"Extra butter?"

"Slightly salted and extra sweet, yes." 

"Good," Kaito shot the exasperated woman a smile before accepting the pancakes, "If you were going to have personalized pancakes we should have just went to Denny's." 

"Again, IHOP is better."

"No one asked for your opinion." Aoko huffed and took a bite from her burger, casually stirring through her sugary coffee. They ate in silence because any more unnecessary noises and Akako might make the entire complex explode. "Why does every child and their mother have to eat at McDonald's?" Akako hissed out, polished nails digging into the plastic table. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Kaito excused himself just as his seat almost caught on fire.

"Uuh," Eisuke started, "Can I ask a question?" The intern squeaked as Akako broke a bone in half and it wouldn't have been so scary if she weren't using plastic utensils and it wasn't a femur or generally just not breaking bones in half with a synthetic material that was practically designed to be light and weak. 

"What is it, Hondou-kun?" Aoko asked, dabbing the corner of her lips for nonexistent grease stains. Big, shiny eyes leveling a stare at Eisuke and the intern felt his courage falter. "Does Kuroba-san have a past with children?" Eisuke squeaked and shrunk back as Akako vigorously stirred her latte, tipping hot (too hot, almost boiling) dark liquid onto the table. Aoko pursed her lips and looked to the side, as if to contemplate whether or not to tell Eisuke whatever Kaito had going on. 

"It's not like that, really." Aoko hesitantly informed with a clouded expression, "Kaito's not so good with children," Eisuke gawked because um, he was there when Kaito comforted Hanako and he was 99% sure that Kaito is a better people-person than any of them at the table, "But during our first year in Min's there was one client who Kaito bonded with very well, she—"

"What'd I miss?" Kaito popped up with an impish grin, holding packets of ketchup and rolls of tissue that he was most probably going to take back to the office like the illegal person he truly was. 

"Nothing." Akako hastily replied, drinking her boiling latte with a pained look. "Just casually drinking our drinks, ohohoho~." Eisuke shuddered as the scarlet lady sent him a pointed glance, Aoko sighed at Kaito's bad timing. 

"You guys done? We should go." Kaito hummed out as they slowly made their way out of the fast food chain and back to their office. 

"Eisuke wants to know about Rui." Aoko blurted out just as they stepped into the office. Akako bristled, Kaito froze and Eisuke whimpered, "I'm sorry I asked!" The intern exclaimed, trying to salvage the wreck he sorta made. Akako glared on and dangerously brandished a shiny black pouch in front of her. 

"Guys, calm down." Kaito exclaimed before Akako could pull out any voodoo dolls or hexes, "I don't mind. I'll tell the story, Akako stop being uncharacteristically protective." Akako looked offended as she stepped back and settled down on the couch. "I was merely looking out for your emotional state, have a little gratitude!" 

"Okay, okay. Thank you, My Royal Protector. Eisuke, sit down. This is gonna be long," Kaito sat the intern down and went to brew them cocoa. _'You can do it, talk to Eisuke and tell him everything like a proper adult, with manners and etiquette. You can do this Kaito, you're a fucking gentleman thief! You can tell him something that happened a long time ago!"_ Or so, was Kaito's plan. 

"So, back during our first year here at Min's, I handled a 12 year old client named Rui. She was a smart little kid, stole her abusive mother's phone one night to call the police but ended up calling Min's hotline. I asked for an address, she didn't know, I asked for surroundings, she lived in a run down apartment complex, I searched for it around Ekoda and couldn't find it, called her a number of times until her mother found out, wasn't happy with Rui contacting outsiders, homicide, case closed, happy 3rd year anniversary to Rui's death, the end." 

Eisuke didn't even have enough time to take a sip from his piping hot cocoa as Kaito finished the story far too quickly for anyone's liking. "B-But.." Eisuke stammered out as he searched for any emotion on Kaito's face, he found none except for the fact that he knew Kaito was hiding behind a well-crafted mask. "You said this would be long!" 

"Yeah, I thought you wouldn't like that." Kaito ran a hand through his sleeve and produced a pack of cards, jerkily rifling and shuffling them. Aoko's eyes narrowed at the display of obvious nervousness. "It's just as Kaito said it, Hondou-kun. We had a client named Rui, a minor who was killed by her mother. That's all there is to it." Akako repeated with a tensed jaw, holding a tone that signified no more conversations. 

"Guys, let's all focus on our work now." Aoko sighed and sat at her desk, "Akako-chan, don't you need to go around Tokyo?" The scarlet lady clicked her tongue and strode to her desk, retrieving her bag and extravagantly disappearing with a puff of red smoke. "Great," Kaito yelped out, clapping his hands, "Now we just have to wait for feedback from Akako, in the meantime we could search through Google Earth again." 

Eisuke took a deep inhale at the thought of redoing all their night's worth of searching and prayed that he'll be sane afterwards. "I'll help," Aoko offered with a kind smile and Eisuke wasn't even ashamed of the cry that left his lips. "Let's go and save Hanako-chan!" Kaito proclaimed as the trio got to working. 

"Nakamori-san, could you go over Little China for me?" 

"Hey, this street doesn't have any white houses! Nice, gotta text Akako-chan~." 

"I need hot choco for this shit, why is a residence right beside adult shops?!" 

"Oh God, I didn't notice the time!" Aoko exclaimed as she finished running through a street in Tokyo, "Guys, take a pick from one of the fast foods to deliver food. Not unless you want Chinese take out." 

"Why not pizza?" Kaito suggested with a crack of his stiff neck, "Easier to eat than noodles." Aoko quickly punched the website and placed a quick order. "No anchovies!" Kaito followed up as Aoko entered their address. "I know, you whiny baby." 

Pizza was definitely the best choice of consumable as the trio were able to work and eat at the same time (despite the obvious mess they made and the grease stains that now littered their wooden desks) and Kaito could proudly count that they were able to cut off another 50 from the search for Hanako's house. 

"I'm home," Akako greeted at the entranceway as if she was coming into her real home, toeing off her high heels off and padding towards the couch. "I searched 50 houses and none have a young girl named Hanako living in any of them." She reported with an exhausted sigh, wiggling her toes and stretching her muscles. 

"Good work today, have some cold pizza." Aoko presented a paper plate with two pizza slices that she had kindly set aside for the other worker, "We've managed to narrow down the houses too, we can continue the search tomorrow." 

"I'll go," Eisuke volunteered, "I don't have anything to do in the morning plus I wouldn't want Koizumi-san to bear all the dirty work." Akako shot the intern a slightly appreciative look, "What makes you think I can't handle myself?" The lady drawled out with a rather intimidating gaze. "N-Nothing, ma'am!" He squeaked and cowered behind Kaito causing the ladies to let out soft giggles. 

"I need sleep." Kaito decided with a twitch, "Wake me up when the graveyard shift starts." Aoko guided him to the Snooze Room albeit a little reluctantly, "Don't tell me you're also scared of what Akako said the other night?" The thief hissed out as Aoko cautiously opened the door, "It's a freaking break room, there's nothing in there!" To prove his point, Kaito stepped inside the room and rummaged around, checking under the blankets, comforters, beds and even the drawers by the side. "See?" Despite his obvious point, Aoko stayed at the doorway. "Go ahead and sleep! I'll wake you up for dinner." 

"Thanks, how much do I owe you now?" Kaito wrung his hands while Aoko did a quick tally of all of the his debt. 

"Counting the McDo from earlier, your share of the pizza, the Indian food we got last week, the Chinese takeouts, ribs the other day and refurbishing your KID lair, I'd say you're somewhere close to 25 grand." Kaito gulped and counted his monthly expenses along with other necessary expenses, deducting it from his monthly pay..... Holy shit, he's gonna be broke-r than broke.

"Can I pay you back by the end of the month?" Kaito asked weakly, Aoko being the Saint that she was nodded, "Take your time, I know you spent all your savings on Blue Parrot." Kaito spluttered and denied as smoothly as he could. "I saw the deeds in your bag, who do you think I am?" She raised an amused eyebrow and closed the door with a short laugh. 

"I miss my dense, innocent, do-no-harm Aoko." Kaito grumbled with a pout, throwing himself into one of the pods and wrapping himself in the soft comforter and catching up on much needed sleep.

"Dinner, Kaito!" Aoko exclaimed, bursting into the room at 9:30PM with disposable chopsticks in hand, "I hope you're up for some reheat-able bentos because that's the nearest available food here!" 

Kaito woke up with a jolt, hand reaching for his hidden card gun. "Can't you be gentle, woman?!" 

"Yuck, which dominatrix did you say that to? I'd like to send them some holy water." Aoko shrugged and Kaito glared, sitting up and carelessly patting down his bed head. "Dinner's ready," she left the room after that and Kaito followed. 

"Good morning, Kuroba-san." Eisuke greeted him with the type of smile usually used by angels, "Let's do our best again tonight~." The intern cheered and happily made his way over to his desk where a mackerel bento waited at. 

"What happened to him? Did the calls finally break him?" Kaito whispered to Aoko, watching as Eisuke happily gulped down his meal. "Akako reassured him that the ghosts have embarked to the other side." The lady stated with a roll of her eyes, "He's been ecstatic for five hours straight, it's actually kind of cute." Kaito hummed in horrific agreement as Eisuke _beamed_ towards the conversing childhood friends and hummed to some theme song of an obscure 90's anime. 

"So, anything on Hanako?" Kaito started over their stale dinner of supposed hamburger steak and rice (it was more like corned beef and sticky rice really), "Nothing yet, you could try giving her a call later. I need to be at university by 10." Again, Kaito rolled his eyes. "No offense but those lessons are a waste of time," 

"You won't be saying that after I nab a spot as Detective Inspector at Division Two." Aoko declared with a huff, finishing her crumbling steak and disposing the plastic container. "Now, I'll be going. Akako-chan went on a drink run just a little bit earlier, she'll arrive soon. See you tomorrow!" 

"Bye," Kaito waved her goodbye before turning to his desk and booting up his computer, "Google Earth doesn't have any more photos to investigate, I guess I'll go update our search log." In the process of editing, Eisuke's phone rang and Kaito promptly stopped editing and watched the intern carefully. 

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Suicide Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?" Kaito watched as Eisuke started the conversation, noting how it was a little better than his first client, _'He's got this.'_ Kaito thought with a complacent smile as Eisuke conversed in a soft voice, the thief was ready to return to his previous work when Eisuke let out a small squeak that Kaito would like to call _the fuckening_ as the intern slowly loss every sense of serenity. 

"Please calm down," Eisuke whimpered out as he frantically searched the web for tips on his current predicament, "You'll go into shock, please. Listen to me," Kaito made his move, running over and mouthing 'Transfer the call to me, do it now' and Eisuke quickly complied. "Ms. Sayo, I'm going to call someone who could help you okay? He's a really friendly guy and I'm sure he can help, here let me let you talk to him." 

Kaito ran back to his desk and held the phone up to his ear, "Hey there." The thief started as he heard ragged breaths from the other side, "I'm Kaito. I'm here to help you," Again, no response as the breathing got quicker and shallower. Kaito furrowed his eyebrows and listened closely, it seemed like words and chatter won't do much for this girl. 

"I had the most vivid dream," Kaito started in a low voice, listening as Ms. Sayo's voice hitched at the soft singing, "My feet had left the ground, I was floating into heaven but I could only look down." The thief sung lowly into the phone, careful not to make sudden intonations or loud sounds. "I woke up so worried that the angels let go." Kaito listened as Ms. Sayo slowly calmed down, now focused on Kaito's voice. 

"Oh god, I’m so tired of being afraid, maybe I’m stronger than I realize." Eisuke had left his post and sat beside Kaito to listen to his song, Kaito shot the intern a small smile, "I want to believe no, I choose to believe that I was made to become a sanctuary."

"Is it courage or faith to show up everyday? I trust that there will be light always waiting behind." By now, Ms. Sayo's breathing had stabilized into deep inhales, "Even the darkest of nights. No matter what, somehow we’ll be okay. Don’t be afraid." He finished the song and allowed a few moments of silence before speaking up once again. 

"Ms. Sayo? I'm here and you'll be okay, I'll help you." He heard soft cries from the girl on the other side and Kaito couldn't help but smile a crooked smile, "Wipe those tears away, dear. For me please?" Ms. Sayo let out a small noise as the sound of a handkerchief rustling echoed from the phone. 

_"Thank you,"_ The lady finally spoke after minutes of calming down, her voice was raspy and nasal from too much crying, _"Thank you for the song,"_ Ms. Sayo profusely whispered, "I'm glad it helped." Kaito answered, 

_"I called because I've been having trouble at work,"_ She opened up and Kaito instantly perked up, _"Deadlines, expectations, overtime and constant peer pressure have been weighing me down."_ Her voice cracked halfway through her list of problems and Kaito wanted to help her terribly, _"I'm tired of overthinking and worrying about all of these things."_ Her voice pitched up towards the end and Kaito immediately cooed out to stop the onslaught of tears that were threatening to burst. 

"Sayo, love. Calm down and listen to me, okay? In life, there's a balance of importance and carelessness. You can't live life without one of the two missing, do you follow?" Ms. Sayo let out a segmented hum, "Like a rubber band, you stretch it when needed but you'll have to loosen it or else it will snap. The same goes with life, you can stress the important things but never forget to loosen up or else the band might break." 

"Try taking those words to heart, dear." Kaito spoke out as Ms. Sayo sniffled, 

_"Yes! I'll try that, thank you Mr. Kaito."_ The line went dead and Kaito leaned back with a sigh of relief. 

"That was amazing, Kuroba-san!" Eisuke squeaked, "I almost fell asleep to your lullaby." Kaito returned the praise with a pointed stare causing the intern to shrink back, "What happened to you? You lost all sense of the job there and who knows what might have happened if I'm not present?" The intern hung his head in shame, sweaty palms gripping onto his pant legs and Kaito let out a soft exhale. "You're an intern and a newbie to boot so it's understandable but you'll need to perform better on other calls." Eisuke nodded, biting his lips and pulling up a strong front. 

"Don't worry," Kaito reassured a little softer this time, "I'll help you improve, we can start tomorrow after your shift okay?" 

"Thank you, I'll be in the Snooze Room," Eisuke mumbled with a small smile, excusing himself and entering the said room with a muted thud of the door. Kaito fell forward and onto his desk, vaguely he heard the door opening and in came one Akako who did _not_ have any drinks in her hands whatsoever. 

"What happened to your drink run?" Kaito mumbled as Akako trudged to the Snooze Room, "I got thirsty on the way." Akako bit back sarcastically, showing her slashed bag. "Those muggers better be thankful they robbed the right bag then." Kaito hummed feeling more relieved for the muggers than the victim herself. "I'll hex them." The witch hissed out before disappearing into the Snooze Room. 

"Time to make myself cozy." Kaito sang out as he searched for calming piano music and began to reread a book just to pass time. The phone rang once again at 2AM and this time, Kaito wasn't surprised. 

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?" 

"Mister Ryu," Kaito added with a small sigh.

 _"Good evening to you too."_ It was indeed Mister Ryu albeit the man's voice was a little raspy and nasal telling Kaito that his nightly caller might be a little sick today. 

"Got a cold?" Kaito asked as the man sniffled, "Then you should get some rest and sleep. Maybe we can talk in the morning instead."

 _"No!"_ Mister Ryu exclaimed an octave higher than usual, _"I'm only free around this time and besides, it's not like I fall asleep quickly. Talking to you has a certain effect on me, it..... it calms me."_

"Glad I could be of help," Kaito answered with a soft smile, "What shall we talk about tonight? I slept through most of the day so I can't quite give you an interesting story." 

_"I'll start then."_ Mister Ryu offered, _"And stop calling me 'Mister', I'm guessing I'm no older than you and it makes things too formal."_

"Ryu, then." Kaito nodded his head and wondered if the development was something worth popping a can of cherry soda for. 

_"I met with my friend today,"_ Ryu started in a soft tone, obviously breathing through his mouth, _"I talked to them about the things I needed to clear up about just like what you've suggested."_ Kaito listened carefully with heavy tension, _"I spoke to them about our relationship and our separate futures and I—"_ The man's words were halted by a loud sneeze that had Kaito shuddering, Ryu moved away from the phone to blow his nose and Kaito caught a sound of a younger voice that he had surely heard before but couldn't place where. 

_"And I—, we came to a mutual understanding that I won't be able to accompany them through life and that it would be better to go separate ways."_ Ryu's voice was raspy and Kaito wanted nothing more than to cut the talk short so that the caller could rest. 

"How do you feel after that?" Kaito piped up after a beat of silence, "Did talking to them help?" 

_"I'm still confused,"_ Ryu answered with a sigh, _"All my life, I thought I'd be with them forever. That we were meant to be and that we would always pull through. I've always thought like so but now, having experienced so much on my own and being so far yet so close to them, I've realized that neither of us were made for each other and that was hard to swallow. I didn't want to accept that so I asked them to wait for me for an indefinite amount of time because I was afraid to let them go. Now that I've talked to them, made my peace and said a proper goodbye I feel both depressed and freed."_

Kaito swallowed a lump on his throat, resisting the urge to bang his head on the table. He was getting emotionally moved by a stranger's words, what a day. "It's common to feel like that after a break-up— er, confrontation. There'll always be a wound from it but time will heal it, don't you think so too?" 

_"Yes, I agree."_ Ryu answered, _"And I hate to admit it but confronting them made me realize a few things about myself too and the things I wish to attain in life but that's a story for another time. How did your day go, Kaito?"_

"I'm glad you're moving forward. I've had a pretty normal day, I ate pancakes at McDonalds for breakfast, I slept throughout the rest of the day and I guess I reminisced about someone from a distant past. No one of importance really." _No one alive and breathing either._ Kaito cleared his throat and rid his head of malignant thoughts. "So, I believe we were talking about violins yesterday? Why don't we talk about books today?" 

_"Oh yes, the Sherlock Holmes series is my favorite....."_

* * *

_"The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity." — Jinguji Jakurai_

* * *

"I'm gonna kill him!!" A loud voice bellowed from the entrance of Melpomene's as the door slammed open and a figurative tornado came storming in. 

"I wasn't sleeping!" Kaito exclaimed, straightening his posture and rubbing the dried up saliva from the corner of his mouth. "Goddammit, woman! Can't you be a little quieter in the morning?!" Aoko stood at her desk, cracking her knuckles and readying herself for whatever fight she was going to get herself in. 

"He made Ran-chan cry, Kaito! He made _Ran **cry**_ , I'm going to end his pathetic life." Aoko growled out and Kaito groaned at her overly vigorous attitude, "What are you even talking about?" The thief whined out, rubbing his eyes and strolling to the kitchen to fetch himself a cup. 

"Let's all calm down," Eisuke squeaked out when Aoko opened the janitor's closet for a mop, "Nakamori-san, I'm sure they had some sort of situation going on. Maybe it would be better to just comfort Mouri-san instead of possibly severely maiming—" 

"Kill," Aoko corrected, "I will kill him." 

"Instead of possibly k-killing him, wouldn't that upset her even more?" Eisuke held his hands up in a placating manner, "Why don't you try cheering up Mouri-san first?" Kaito nodded in agreement, "She'd never bang you if you kill her best friend since birth, you know." 

"Not helping, Kuroba-san." Eisuke whispered through gritted teeth, "Anyway, Nakamori-san! Your shift doesn't start till nine so why don't we buy Mouri-san some sweets from Monte Charles?" Aoko seemed to relax at the idea, nodding her head she followed Eisuke out of the room. "I'll cheer Ran-chan up!" The lady cheered, the complete opposite of her earlier actions. 

Eisuke shot Kaito a look before leaving with Aoko and Kaito could only pray for the man's soul. 

"Good morning." Akako greeted shamelessly, coming out of the Snooze Room having slept most of her shift away. "Where's Aoko and Hondou-kun?" 

"Monte Charles," Kaito answered with a shudder.

"He's a lamb for slaughter." Akako flatly and Kaito let out a despairing bark of laughter, "Let's just hope he comes back sane." 

Kaito reclined on his chair and tried to relax for the rest of the morning but something was bugging him, nagging at the back of his mind. _Why was he getting a sense of deja vu this early in the morning?_

"W-We're back." Half past 11, Eisuke came stumbling in with the palest face Kaito's ever seen and a happy Aoko bouncing behind him. "The Mont Blanc we tasted was really yummy right, Hondou-kun~?" The lady sang out with a huge smile, holding a small white box with a cut red ribbon on it. "I'm sure Ran-chan would also like the sweets we got for her!" 

"Did she drag you to taste test?" Kaito asked with horrific amusement to the shaking intern, "Yes." Eisuke replied with a whimper, clutching his empty wallet. "I'm broke, Kuroba-san. I kept saying 'No' but I'm broke." Kaito patted the other's back as Eisuke shivered and shuddered. "There, there." 

"I can't wait to give this to Ran-chan," Aoko sighed dreamily as she opened her computer, "Eh?!" The lady yelled a decibel too high for Kaito's liking, "No way!" She squealed out, squirming from left to right. "Ran-chan enrolled for my law class!! She's attending it M to F and even taking the extra class on Saturday!" Aoko placed a tight grip on Kaito's shoulder, rocking him side to side in a fast pace. 

"Let go of me, you damned hag!!" Kaito shrieked out, screwing his mouth shut afterwards to keep the contents of his stomach where it belonged. 

"This is a dream come true, I gotta fix my slideshows and video presentations and oh oh oh!" At this point, Kaito didn't bother to try and calm her down. He just resigned to his fate as a ragdoll and maybe she'd have enough mercy to let him go.

"I'm going to Tokyo," Eisuke announced, holding a map and a duffel bag. "Is this the updated map for Hanako-chan?" Akako nodded and shooed the intern out of the office and he was off, "Cover for me, Kaito! I need to fix up my lecture materials!" Aoko squealed, jumping up and running out of the office, leaving Kaito with one witch for the rest of the afternoon.

"Double shift is a fucking nightmare," Kaito whined out of the blue sometime during his and Akako's cold soba dinner, "Care to tell me why your boyfie went to Jamaica again?" 

"First of all, don't call Saguru 'boyfie' not unless you want to audition for Mean Girls and secondly, didn't he tell you? He's there for a traveling magician who apparently can do pretty well crafted illusions." Akako answered with a quiet slurp of her noodles. "And thirdly, you're _the_ Phantom Thief KID. Another nighttime job won't kill you, you have a higher chance of getting killed by a tranquilizer dart than that." 

"I'm not KID, could you please stop assuming things!" Kaito groaned with a bang of his fist, "You attended a hundred of his heists and half of those I was beside you the entire time!!" Well, technically it was his well-crafted dummy that was by her side but that wasn't the point. 

"So you're saying Kuroba Kaito is made of plastic and is an inflatable?" Akako fired back, holding up a small needle. "I loved Inflatable Kaito, you murderer!" 

"Are you not going to refute the fact that you swapped yourself with a dummy mid-heist?!" Kaito stubbornly crossed his arms with a pout and turned away from the offending woman, "Those inflatables could have been expensive for all you know." 

"You're impossible," Akako sighed and finished her noodles before leaving with quick footsteps, "I know you're KID, Kuroba. No need to hide the obvious!" 

Kaito watched her huff and puff around her desk with mild, mostly annoyed amusement. Was he really that obvious? Well, maybe he was but he was careful to never leave hair strands or any DNA tracks (he learnt his lesson from that one time with Hakuba). 

"I'm home," Eisuke announced a few hours into the graveyard shift, crumbling onto his desk he let out a long exhale, "No luck. All the houses I checked didn't have a Hanako-chan or flowers on the neighboring window." Kaito's lip pursed at the bad news, "Don't sweat it, kid. At least we managed to cover more ground, it'll only be a matter of time before we find her!" The thief wore an encouraging smile for Eisuke, giving him a pat on a back and a protein bar as some sort of consolation prize. 

"We could give her a call again, maybe we can get a little bit more information." Kaito hummed out, sitting on his desk and crossing his legs. "I'll call her right now—" His phone rang just as he was about to dial Hanako's number, the clock read 2AM as per usual and Kaito didn't know whether to be giddy or sad.

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight, Ryu?"

 _"Good evening,"_ Ryu answered with a light snuffle,

"I'm starting to think that you like calling this hotline," Kaito sighed, "What can I help you with tonight? You sound like you've still got a cold, I don't want a relapse." 

_"My temperature's stabilized and I've only got a little bit of snot in my nose, it won't kill me."_ Ryu's voice was haughty and the slightest bit pushy, _"I just wanted to talk to you,"_

Kaito blinked, did he just? 

_"I meant I just wanted to talk to you BECAUSE I feel calmer after talking to you, there are no undertones here, no ulterior motives, nothing!!"_ Ryu spluttered and denied vehemently almost everything that crossed Kaito's mind in the span of 2.5 seconds. Kaito didn't know whether to laugh at Ryu's embarrassment or sulk for no concrete reason whatsoever.

"I don't mind talking to you," Kaito interjected the other's babbling, "It helps me unwind myself although you should really call at not-so-ungodly hours. You do know I work for morning shift too right?" Ryu fell silent and Kaito frowned, _Good job, Kaito. You didn't even bother to think that maybe he has insomnia or a sleeping problem, better resign 'cause that's a newbie mistake—_

 _"I can't sleep well at night,"_ Ryu confessed and Kaito wanted the world to swallow him whole because what he had said was completely inconsiderate and gods, maybe he could ask for Ryu's address and send him a basket of apology chocolates. _"Talking to you helps me fall asleep."_ Kaito bit his lip and repressed the guilty groan that was threatening to spill from his mouth. 

"I'm sorry," He finally got the courage to say after a minute of awkwardness, "I said something inconsiderate, how can I make it up to you?" Kaito expected a scolding or angry complaints but instead he heard faint chuckles that have progressively started to sound more like melodious bells than faint rumbles to Kaito. 

_"Don't apologize, you didn't know."_ All of the snobby rich man facade that Kaito had imagined Ryu to be crumbled to dust and disappeared into the wind as the caller regarded to Kaito in a soft borderline warm tone, _"And it's a pretty selfish reason for me to take up so much of your time so I should be the one apologizing."_

"No!" Kaito shouted out, startling Eisuke who was innocently sipping tea by the kitchen. "No," He repeated again, this time softer, "You don't have to apologize. It's a perfectly good reason to call, I'm here to help and I will help." 

_"Thank you,"_ Ryu breathed out with an exhale, _"Shall we talk?"_

"Favorite food?" Kaito asked with a small grin, "Mine's everything chocolate but sweets comes in close second." 

_"I guess I love lemon pie and coffee,"_ Why did Kaito get a feeling that someone he knew had similar favorites? Maybe Hakuba? Maybe it was like a staple favorite amongst detectives.

"That sounds yummy, not as much as chocolate though." Kaito let out a snicker while Ryu let out a squawk of protest, "Chocolate is definitely the best."

 _"Do you not know the delicate balance of a lemon pie?!"_ Oh, Kaito must have stepped on a landmine. _"Making the filling is a delicate process wherein you have to equate the tangy sourness of the lemon with the sugary sweetness! It's on a complete different level with your pathetic excuse of cacao!"_

"Hey! Even in chocolate there's a fine line between too much cacao and too much sugar! Why do you think there are so many variations of chocolate?!" Kaito hissed and rapidly fired back, their casual conversation soon turned into an all out war of which dessert is better and he tried to ignore the judgmental expression Eisuke kept shooting towards his direction. 

"So, Ryu." Kaito hummed out after thirty minutes of solid debating, "It's two-thirty in the morning, don't you think you should be getting shut eye soon?" Ryu let out a small noise of protest, "Fear not, Tantei-san!" Kaito exclaimed with a snicker, ah he let his pet name for detectives slip. "I will sing you a lullaby to lull you to sleep." He was pretty sure that Ryu was gaping as he spoke. 

"I want to watch the universe expand." Kaito started as gently as he could (first impressions are very important!), using all his training from singing in the shower at 4AM in the morning, "I want to break it into pieces small enough to understand," Wasn't it a perfect song for detectives? Surely even Ryu would fall asleep to his song, "And put it all back together again in the quiet of my private collection." _Remember to keep your voice low and soothing, not too loud so that you won't jolt them awake,_ he thought as he sang , Ryu seemed to be at lost for words for the man had fallen silent. "It feels like an out of body experience—"

 _"Okay, that's enough!"_ Ryu squeaked out of the blue, _"I think I can sleep now!"_

"But I haven't even gotten to the chorus yet," Kaito pouted, he enjoyed singing okay? He liked to finish singing songs if ever he starts them thank you very much, now he'll have to continue his concert in the shower. "And are you really sure you can sleep now? You sound like a mole rat on caffeine." Kaito prided himself for finding a good analogy to how Ryu sounded like, it was pretty damn close actually. The detective's voice grew sharper and squeakier the farther he was from the phone, weirdly enough his pitch loved to change too. It reminded Kaito of his beginner days where he tried copying multiple voices in succession but ended up unable to adapt and flow fluidly. Maybe Ryu just had a perpetual sore throat or something, Kaito didn't know. "Fine, but don't hang up! I'll be the one to hang up so that I can make sure that you've really fallen asleep!" 

_"Fine,"_ Ryu sniffed, _"Goodnight, Kaito."_ The other line went silent but true to Kaito's request, Ryu didn't hang up. In the span of a few minutes, Ryu's breathing grew deeper and longer with the soft exceptions of light hiccups brought upon by residual phlegm and snores. "Goodnight, Ryu." Softly spoken, careful not to wake the caller up Kaito hung up with a smile that could only be described as 'motherly'. 

"You're really good at this job, Kuroba-san." Eisuke piped up after a moment of blissful silence, "It's hard to believe that we're the same age." 

"Are you calling me old?" One quick glare was enough to send Eisuke prostrated on the floor, begging for forgiveness. "I've been doing this job for three years, I should be good at it or else I'd fire myself." Sighing, Kaito propped an elbow on the desk and rested his head on a rough palm (from all the dirty work he does setting up his heists, he never bothered fixing them with lotion). "By the way, I was going to teach you a few things. Grab a seat and stop groveling!" Eisuke shuffled onto his swivel chair and impatiently waited for whatever Kaito had in store for him.

"Lesson number one! Always be wary of your client's tone and pitch, actually this is a given since we work at a call center for gods' sake but always be wary!" Kaito felt like he was giving a speech for some university lecture and Eisuke made it feel ten times worse when he pulled out a notebook and began jotting down notes and reminders. "Listening to their voices is the easiest way to determine their state of being, predicament and over all EQ so practice those ears, kid. You're gonna be using them a lot." He could vouch for it, never in Kaito's wildest dreams did he consider using his talent for identifying pitches and tones in any field of work until Min's. Gods, he knew how important it was, I mean a _hotline_? A job that entails talking through the _phone_? Yeah, his little talent that's usually reserved for copying voices as KID actually comes handy in other things. 

"Try guessing how I feel, I'll cycle through different tones, voices and pitches and i want you to guess how I'm feeling and alleviate me, okay?" 

"I'll do my best! I want to be able to help our callers." Thus started the longest night of Kaito's life, having realized 30 minutes into the lesson that Hondou Eisuke is both the purest and the klutziest man in existence.

* * *

_"Love the life you live, Live the life you love." — Daisu Arisugawa_

* * *

"Let me get this straight. You spent five hours trying to teach Eisuke how to sing? And he still can't do Do-Re-Mi properly??" 

"Yes Aoko, for the millionth time, yes." Heavy eye bags were prominent as Kaito brewed himself a cup of hot cocoa (begrudgingly sneaking in a few table spoons of coffee), "He can't sing Baa Baa Black Sheep without making anyone's ears bleed and he has such a soft voice, it's a waste." If Kaito had known sooner that the intern couldn't hold a tune to save a life, he would have saved himself 5 hours of time. He regretted it _deeply_. "He's an eager learner, but he isn't a pretty lady or the embodiment of chocolate so I don't have enough patience for him. I told him _you'd_ do the next lesson so bye!" Before Aoko could react, Kaito sprinted for the door.

"Kaaaiiiitooooo!!!" Screamed the other supervisor as the magician sprinted as fast as he could towards the train station, letting out a triumphant laugh Kaito purchased a ticket for Tokyo and was off. "Hmm, if I remember correctly. Eisuke and Akako have covered this area so for today I'll search through this area..." To pass time during the train ride, Kaito busied himself with some foundation and concealer. "Damn, double shifts are definitely dealing a number on me." He commented, inspecting the dark bruising color underlying his eyes, "Gotta remind myself to get some more sleep." Dabbing a bit of his concealer, Kaito leisurely began to cover up the bags as professionally as he could. 

"Tokyo Station, I repeat Tokyo Station." The intercom rang after a short travel, Kaito promptly exited the train and walked down the roads, "Let's see... Better ask around for a bit.... Shit." 

Standing in its navy blue and white ride, the Tokyo Police Department stood at the center of town and smack dab at the heart of where Kaito had to search. Something told him his dear friends back at Min's left it specifically for him to search. 

"Wait," Kaito attempted to calm himself, "They don't know KID's face and surely Nakamori-jiisan could vouch for me so I don't have to worry about getting caught." He would have liked for the statement to have more foundation to it really, he was getting jittery. "Or maybe," Kaito stared at the large building, "Maybe Ryu's in there. I could drop by to check up on him, it's a long overdue visit." After a while of contemplation, he decided to walk away. "I'd rather be admitted to the asylum than willingly go in there." 

As per expected, every house turned up empty. Not a single one knew about a child named Hanako or a house with pansies and orchids, it was rather disappointing because his feet hurt and his throat felt raw from too much talking with every house he checked. "Where are you, Hanako?" The thief sighed out as he trudged back to the train station, the sun was starting to set and the air was finally getting a little cooler.

 _'Maybe I should ask the department...'_ Kaito heaved a sigh, standing by the entrance of the department. There was still that tiny percentage that the police might know what KID looks like (Hakuba could have leaked that DNA data from years ago) and an even tinier percentage that they might instantly recognize him as KID if he so much as talked (but he was pretty careful with his voice, surely they wouldn't be able to tell), both were chances he wasn't so intent on taking. 

Kaito heard footsteps approaching the entrance and quickly hid himself, he watched as police officers casually walked around apparently gossiping, "Did you hear? They're bringing over the most precious garnet, The Garnet Prophecy, this Sunday. Do you think KID would try to steal it?" 

Aah, Kaito loved a good Ex Machina. _'I know what I'm going to do this Sunday~.'_

"This is unbelievable, two consecutive heists with the kindest heist notices ever!" Aoko exclaimed as Kaito fiddled with a small gizmo he was planning on turning into a smoke bomb, the two were in the Snooze Room while Akako and Eisuke worked outside. "Are you even listening to me, Kaito?!" The other supervisor screeched as she furiously deleted the photo of the heist notice from her phone, "You're gonna die. I swear to the gods, you are gonna die." Aoko resignedly whimpered out, collapsing on her designated bed, "Don't kill me off like that," Kaito hissed out, screwing a bolt into his nightmarish contraption, "And I have to go, I can't just leave a big jewel alone and not check if it's Pandora." 

Aoko looked mildly worried at his words, "Can't you just hand this problem to the police? They'll be able to handle it, they have more flexibility and power than you, you know." Kaito heaved in an inhale, placing down his finished sticky gas bomb, "I can handle myself, stop worrying yourself so much."

"If those crows appear again and you get shot at, what do you think will happen?" Aoko fired back with a furrow of her brows and a long frown, Kaito felt a pang of guilt hit him. If he hadn't told Aoko anything, she wouldn't be so worried about a KID heist. 

"I wear a bulletproof vest underneath my shirt and underneath that is a metal plating, I won't die so easily!" Kaito reassured as strongly as he could, placing a hand on Aoko's shoulder and giving her a ticklish massage, "Now turn those corners upside down or else...?" Aoko stifled a giggle and thrashed around, Kaito adamantly pressed his fingers to her sides, eliciting high pitched laughs, "Or else the happiness will spill!" Aoko screeched out between laughs and Kaito, satisfied with his work let her go. "I'll be fine, I promise you." The thief whispered as Aoko stood to leave the room,  
"I'm counting on that." Aoko threw back from the doorway, shooting him one last glance before leaving.

The heist was located at an open field garden party, the gem resided inside a makeshift circus tent at the center of it all with guards stationed around its perimeter. The venue was lovely enough, the tent was pure white with flags at the very top and the entrance of the tent were drapes held back by golden ropes. The insides were spacious with only tens of men stationed inside to avoid overcrowding and easy disguises. The Garnet Prophecy was a palm-sized jewel embedded into a golden framing similar to an open book and was stored inside a glass case under a lock and heavily fortified glass making it impossible to brake. Four guards were stationed around the display case, all armed with stun guns and batons, by the side Kaito spied a little kid conversing with Inspector Nakamori and really, it might be becoming a regular occurrence that Edogawa Conan will always, without a doubt, attend his heist. 

"Guess I can't use the same trick as last time," Kaito did consider repeating what he did last time but since Conan was there it was highly possible that he came prepared and repeating the same trick would just result in Kaito getting jailed, "Good thing I brought a dummy." 10 o'clock was his stated arrival and with just a minute left until said time, Kaito trudged a little ways away from the venue and released a dummy that flew over the tent, drawing the attention of patrolling guards and other guards stationed outside the tent. "Hahaha! Catch me if you can!" The dummy spoke via a prerecorded message, without much of a thought the guards chased after the dummy that kept going further and further away. 

"Stupid~," KID sang as he infiltrated the tent, wearing his very own police officer uniform. Some of the indoor guards have left the venue to check on the commotion outside and Inspector Nakamori was apparently one of them because KID couldn't hear his loud voice inside the tent. "Sir!" KID exclaimed, donning the persona of an intern officer as he approached the stationed guards around the jewel, "Inspector Nakamori demands every officer to be deployed outside as KID has shown himself! Other officers are currently chasing him and we need every hand we can get!" Like the good, idiotic officers they were, the guards quickly left the tent and joined in the wild goose chase of the dummy that was still playing prerecorded lines. 

"That was too easy," KID shrugged as he quickly fished out his pins. Ooh, a complicated lock, normally KID would savor this challenge and bask in the glory of unlocking something complex but for tonight, he had to pick up his pace because he had a worried Aoko waiting for him back at Min's. 

"I know right," A childish voice piped up from the shadows and KID inwardly groaned, "I told them not to pay attention to dummies but they didn't listen to me." Conan looked just like the last time they met, maybe just a little angrier than before, well KID didn't blame him because he had left the kid in a ribbon contraption last time. 

"Tantei-kun, you really have to stop attending my heists. It's very bad for your health," KID sighed out exasperatedly, unlocking the casing and quickly taking the jewel, "Like last time, I told you that Insomnia might develop in later years, yes?" Conan seemed rather annoyed at KID's concern, maybe he was a little bit mocking? 

"Shut up, I don't need your pity." Conan hissed out, stepping closer with watch aimed at the thief ready to shoot at any given moment. "And shouldn't you be worrying about yourself? You're the one who keeps setting heists this late at night, don't you have Insomnia?" 

"I prefer nighttime because it is far more convenient for me, well at least it was but now it's rather constricting." KID sighed and shook his head dramatically, "Heists become tiresome when you have a schedule to follow." 

"Oh?" Conan wore an expression he usually reserved for murder suspects and deductions, KID reminded himself to hurry up before Inspector Nakamori finds out that the KID they're chasing after was a dummy, "You follow a schedule this late at night?" 

"Yes, as laughable as it is. I'm still a human with a job and such, yada yada yada." KID shuffled through his pockets for the child-sized handcuffs he prepared specifically for Conan because he knew how sneaky the little kid was, "Better run along now, why don't I sing you a lullaby, will that help you sleep?" Conan appeared disgusted at KID's suggestion while the thief blew him a mocking kiss, "I know this song that fits detectives like you." 

"It goes like this~," KID began to hum the start of a song, "I want to watch the universe—" Conan looked shocked (probably because of KID's unsuspected god tier singing voice, eh?) as KID sang but their fun was cut short as Inspector Nakamori finally found out that dummy was actually a ruse and his angry shouts could be heard approaching the tent, "Whoops, gotta cut this talk short, till we meet again, Tantei-kun!" KID swiftly exited the tent, leaving behind a surprised Conan. 

"To hell with prophecies, this one isn't Pandora either." Kaito sighed as he swiftly changed out of his attire, Garnet Prophecy now in an envelope probably being mailed back to its owner, "Where could Pandora be?" He sullenly thought as he walked back to Min's, the venue was rather close this time and he couldn't be even more grateful for that. 

"Welcome home, Kuroba-san." Eisuke greeted him with Aoko peeking from the kitchen, "We were just getting ready for a light snack!" 

"I'm guessing it was a failure?" Aoko looked conflictingly relieved and disappointed, Kaito could guess he wore a similar expression. Hey, no one sane would want an entire underground organization after them no matter how daring or bold they were. “Would I really show up at work if I found it?” The two continued to throw one another shade until Eisuke herded them to the dining table for a light snack of fried tofu skin and rice. "You look tired, why don't you get some rest?" Aoko commented as they disposed of their paper plates, Kaito took a quick peek at the clock and shook his head, "I'll stay up for a little bit more but shouldn't you be at Uni or something?"

"The thing is, Ran-chan's actually tutoring some students so I have more free time for myself!" Aoko giggled out like the love struck fool she was but Kaito knew Ran was just a starter and no way in hell would a beginner be able to tutor students who've been mastering law for years, "But I guess one in the morning is a little late. I'll get going, you get some rest in a while." She left with a wave and a complicated glance, Kaito shrugged it off (best that he could) and waited patiently at his desk for a much expected call. The phone rang after a short wait and Kaito picked it up without much fanfare. 

"Hello, Ryu. How can I help you tonight?" An approving grunt emitted from the phone and Kaito rolled his eyes, "Having trouble sleeping tonight?" 

_"Hmm, I guess so. Could you sing me the same song from last night?"_ Ryu seemed rather eager tonight and Kaito felt rather pumped himself, "Oh? Fallen in love with my voice, have you? Okay then, I'll sing for you." And so, just like last night Kaito began to sing in his softest voice. 

"I want to watch the universe expand—" He took a breath to sing the next lines, great! Off to an amazing start, he got those lines perfectly. Now he could ease in the next lines and— _"On second thought, I doubt I'd be able to fall asleep to your voice so stop."_ My how rude, wasn't he that one who wanted for Kaito to sing?

"Okay then what do you propose I do instead?" Kaito hissed with a twitch of his eyebrow, _"We talk like usual."_ Ryu replied with nonchalance that annoyed Kaito even more, why was he so pushy today? Maybe something happened? More trouble with his friend or something? "Okay," Kaito agreed with little to no hesitation, "You're pushy today but okay, what do you want to talk about?" 

_"You,"_ Ryu answered and Kaito spluttered, for a presumably straight man Ryu said some pretty gay shit sometimes, _"I meant I'd like to know more about you in the nonromantic way,"_ He followed up in the awkwardest manner possible along with a clear of his throat and a cough in that exact order. _"What did you do tonight? Did you go somewhere?"_ Well aren't those borderline creepy questions, Kaito did not want to answer them. 

"It was normal? My friend's worried about me overworking myself with all these shifts so I'm having quite a guilt trip here." That was the best answer he could muster without letting slip that he was at a heist, _"Oh? Your friend's worried about you? Isn't that rather nice? Having friends who worry about your wellbeing are keepers."_

"That may be true but back then, she— they weren't such a worry wart, they were more free and," Kaito took a deep breath, feeling rather faint as a rush of memories overwhelmed his brain, "they were happier and carefree, they would always laugh and go everywhere." 

_"But?"_

"An accident happened while I was working," Technically it wasn't an accident because that stupid nun placed those easily breakable glass where people would fall, "I got hurt pretty badly, I had to recuperate for months because of the wound and my friend, they were there when the accident happened," Technically Aoko was the reason why Kaito got hurt but he didn't really blame her, "They stuck by me ever since and I've got no choice but to let them do as they please, I've tried to stop them and dissuade their efforts but they keep coming back like a roach." 

_"And what's your relationship with this friend?"_

"I've know them since childhood! Take a wild guess, dude." Kaito joked out with a short despairing laugh, "I was there for her first piano recital, her first errand and even her first period! Gods, I know her like how I know myself and I'm sure the same applies to her." Kaito mindlessly fingered the folded cards up his sleeve, "That's why it hurts to know that she's stressing herself and worrying over me, I don't want to be such a big burden to her because I want her to live a happy life in the sunshine, not in the shadows where I reside. I never intentionally wanted for her to go with me, I wanted to keep her away from what I do but now I can't take it back, I can only watch as she tries to cope with her own worries, worries about me and it _hurts_ to think that I'm the cause of it and I can't even do anything to help her." He had started ranting, he lost all sense of filter because his mind was occupied with two words, _Sun Halo_. "If only I was stronger back then, if I had done things properly she wouldn't be worrying about me and would probably be off in Switzerland playing the piano but instead she chose to stick with me, to continue following me and making sure that I don't die the next day. I'm just a burden to her and—" 

_"Have you ever considered telling her all of this?"_ Ryu interrupted, breaking Kaito's melodramas. "No," The supervisor sniffled out with regret, "I doubt she'd believe me. She thinks of me as a baby." 

_"Well, I'll be using your own advice against you and you should try talking to her. Even if she doesn't listen, at least try to talk to her. Tell her what you just told me and maybe you two can reach a consensus, I'm sure she has her own side of the story that she'd love to say so why don't you try, love?"_ The pet name was spoken jokingly as if Ryu was trying to cheer Kaito up and the thief replied in kind with a short laugh, "You sound out of character, Ryu but thank you, this turned out to be one hell of a talk huh? I'll make it up to you tomorrow." 

_"I'll look forward to that,"_ Kaito was able to detect the slightest hints of excitement in Ryu's voice and that information alone made the thief smile, _"Oh and Kaito?"_ The caller piped up just as he was about to hang up, _"Sorry for cutting your lullaby short, you have a wonderful voice and I'm sure you'd sound nice singing 'Four', why don't you try it sometimes?"_ The line went dead before Kaito could reply and he wasn't even the slightest bit annoyed, instead he felt rather happy all things considered. 

The real battle was tomorrow. 

The next morning was nail-bitingly nerve wrecking as Kaito waited by the entrance, the clock read 6:30AM and Kaito did not get a single wink of sleep, not that he minded because he was rather preoccupied with other thoughts. 7:30 and the door finally slammed open to reveal a sleepy Aoko in simple jeans and a white tee, "Come with me!" Kaito sprung up from his hiding place, scaring the day lights out of the other supervisor and promptly dragging her into the kitchen. 

"What is wrong with you?!" Aoko shrilly screamed as her hands clawed at Kaito's rather crinkly sleeve (from all the fiddling with the hidden cards she bet), "We need to talk." Kaito answered with a hard swallow, obviously sweating like it was midsummer. "This better not be a confession...."

"It's about the Sun Halo Heist," Kaito informed, watching as Aoko stilled an immediately sobered, "I know you're worried for me and I know you know how dangerous my other job is but I don't want you to worry, I can't bear to see you worry about me." Aoko frowned at Kaito's weak projection of his words, the smaller girl promptly sat them down and wrapped a slender arm around his shoulder. 

"You know that it's not your fault, I chose to worry about you the moment you confessed about all of this." Aoko whispered and Kaito bristled, "It is my fault! If I had been more careful I wouldn't have gotten hurt and you wouldn't have been subjected to finding out my real identity." 

"Now that's a load of bull," Aoko growled, gray eyes flaring into bright silver, "I chose to remove your top hat, I chose to find out for myself, I chose to delve into your world, it's not your fault!" Kaito made a move to disagree but Aoko stuffed a chocolate bar in his mouth, "You are not a burden Kaito, in fact you're the complete opposite. You won't let others worry about you, you won't let others help you and I know this very well because you keep everything bottled up. You don't talk about Jii or Rui or your heists or your injuries, nothing! I have to worry because you don't say anything, why don't you give it a try? Why not give 'communication' a try?" Aoko held back tears as she gripped onto his shoulders, 

"I—" Kaito choked on his own spit, stumbling on his words. He had an inkling of what Aoko might say to him but he never expected a full blown speech from her, every word felt like a stab to his body and he listened, he took the words to heart and goddammit he tried to obey, "I know it's not easy for you," Aoko whispered, placing her head on the other's shoulder, "I don't expect for you to immediately lower your walls and I don't mind if you take an eternity to do but just please try, for me?" 

Now he can't say no to that, "I'll try, thank you for being there Aoko. Thank you for worrying about me," Kaito replied with a stroke of her messy hair, placing a quick kiss to her head, the two stayed like so for the next few minutes until a drowsy Eisuke stumbled upon them, blushing and spluttering the intern quickly ran out and Aoko followed with a deadly screech. "IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, I'M LESBIAN EISUKEEE!!!"

"I guess some things never changed," Kaito chuckled as he let out a long exhale, feeling rather light, "I'll go take a shower." He decided with a heavy body, all the tension finally left him and the tiredness was finally catching up to him. "Never mind, I guess I'll just sleep." Forgoing a hygienic shower, Kaito gave in to his body's pleas and stalked over to the Snooze Room to sleep for the next eight hours straight. 

"Good morning, Ku~ro~ba~kun~." That was definitely a voice Kaito preferred to never wake up to, Akako greeted him good morning much to his hatred and overall crankiness. "Your dinner's ready or at least your snack is, I tried waking you up earlier but you slept like the dead." The seductress commented, gracefully exiting the Snooze Room. "Good morning, Kuroba-san." Eisuke greeted awkwardly, probably due to the earlier misunderstanding that Aoko hopefully cleared up during Kaito's sleeping bonanza. 

"G'morning," Kaito answered with a yawn, drinking a cup of water and chewing on a leftover protein bar from the fridge, "Has anyone called?" To answer his question, the phone rang and Kaito wallowed in self pity. "I'll get it, you guys go and rest." 

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?" 

_"Help me,"_ It was a male's voice, young probably in his teenage years, raspy and dry, "Hi, I'm Kaito. I'm here to help," Kaito replied immediately, he heard the light clinks of something metallic and alarm bells began to blare in his head. 

_"I can't take it anymore,"_ The male's voice grew increasingly higher and quicker, breaths were drawn in shallowly as the sound of a click echoed a little further from the phone, Kaito knew that sounded rather well, it was the sound of a gun. 

"Sweetheart, listen to me. I'm here for you and I'm here to help you, can you tell me what's wrong?" _Put the gun down, please_.

 _"I'm tired of everything, I'm tired of school, of people, of life, of everything. I can't do it anymore, I've got nobody and everyone expects a boy like me to grow up into a man but I can't."_ Kaito gripped onto his sleeve and bit his lower lip, he could almost _feel_ the caller's sadness. 

"Dear, I'm sure it's been rough for you but death isn't the answer to your problem. It will only cause more pain and sadness than anything else so please, put the gun down. I can help, I will help so please, hold onto that last silver of hope for me?" 

He heard the safety being clicked back on and Kaito let out a silent sigh of relief, soft sobs began to fill Kaito's ear as the caller dropped the gun. "Hush now, child. I'm here, I'll help. Can you give me your address, I want to help you." 

_"Mei Street, Ekoda."_ The boy choked out and Kaito thanked him, with one last word of assurance and encouragement Kaito hung up, running out of the door (much to Eisuke and Akako's surprise) and towards the thankfully nearby street. 

The house was a simple traditional Japanese style home, the front plate read _'Tsumugi's_ and when Kaito rang the doorbell, a middle aged woman with salt and pepper hair greeted him. "Hello, I'm Kuroba Kaito. Your son called our suicide hotline and I'd like to make a follow through," A look of pure shock and horror overcame the woman's wrinkly facade as she immediately bolted for the second floor and Kaito followed. His client was a young teen, barely in his 14s with choppy chestnut brown hair and dull green eyes, he wore long sleeves and ripped jeans, by his side was a simple handgun. "Ren!" His mother screamed as she collected the boy in her arms, "What are you doing with your father's gun!" She chastised between angry puffs, tears tracking down her cheeks. 

"Madam," Kaito spoke up just as Ren's breathing began to speed up, "If I may have some time with him alone?" The lady begrudgingly left the room with a long stare down with Kaito and the thief slowly sat himself beside the curled up teen. 

"Hello, I'm Kaito," He started, watching as Ren shuffled away from him, "Your mother seemed to be rather worried about you." Kaito tried as a starter but sort of regretted it as Ren looked up with a flash of anger in his eyes, "She's not my real mother." Oooh, now he got it. 

"True but her care and worry were genuine towards you and that's irrevocable," He words seemed to have hit Ren rather hardly as the teen froze, "Sweetheart, why did you try to kill yourself?" He spoke as gently as he could, making sure to be as polite as possible. 

"I've had enough of school, I'm always being bullied just because I prefer to draw by the side than play baseball with the other males. My friends distanced themselves when a rumor spread around school about me being gay and having HIV, even the teachers began to pick on me." Ren explained with a snuffle, wiping stray tears away with his dark sleeve. Kaito contemplated for a moment if his next course of action was considered alright but he was never one for personal space anyways. He collected the other into a light hug, with his arms barely wrapped around the teen, just enough to herd him closer to his body. 

"I'm sure it's been tough but sometimes things like that happen," Kaito whispered to the shocked teen, "And during those times, try telling yourself that 'This too shall pass' and always remember, the people at school aren't the only ones in the world. You have a caring mother and probably an even kinder father, you have me. I'm here to support you so don't be afraid, we'll help you." Kaito drew the teen closer as he felt the boy's body rack with soft sobs, slender arms wrapped themselves around Kaito's frame, "There, there. You've done a great job holding on for this long, Ren." 

They stayed like so for another hour, with Kaito simply hugging the boy as he cried himself to sleep. He tucked the boy in, took the gun and returned it to a worried mother, "I doubt that one night will fix him but hopefully he'll improve," Kaito informed as the lady anxiously wrung her hands, "Thank you for helping us, Mr. Kuroba. Do you have a minute to spare? I'll go get us some tea." He was all in for tea, nothing quite calmed a man more than a cup of piping hot herbal tea but one look at the clock ruined his plans for a perfect tea party, "Actually Madam, I think I'll pass on this one. I wouldn't want to impose myself, it is pretty late." Kaito answered, quickly walking for the doorway, "Ren is sleeping now but he isn't fine, I'll come back again in a few days around noon, would that be alright?" Ren's mother was quick to agree, thanking him profusely as she escorted him out of the house. "Thank you so much, Mr. Kuroba." She thanked once last time before closing the door and as soon as she did, Kaito sprinted back to Min's.

"Shit, it's two already," He whined to himself, running towards his office as fast as he could. He arrived to a faint Eisuke, who looked like he was ready to pass out at any given moment as he handled a call. "Mister Ryu? Kuroba-san's here! I'll transfer you now!" Eisuke squeaked as he slammed the transfer button over to Kaito's phone and the thief quickly answered it.

"Hello, Ryu?" Kaito answered breathlessly, collapsing on his seat and taking in deep pants, "Sorry I couldn't answer your call, I had to do a follow through and I can't really disclose much information but I'm here now!" He took a deep breath to calm himself, wiping away the sweat beads that collected on his forehead.

 _"It's fine, I don't really mind."_ Something was off in Ryu's voice today, was something wrong? Was he angry that Kaito didn't answer his call earlier, _"It is pretty selfish of me to constantly call you at two in the morning."_

"I don't really mind," Kaito parroted back, "You aren't imposing and you have every right to call so just call, it was just today that was different. I had to handle a tough client..." 

_"Let me guess, a suicidal?"_ Kaito couldn't answer him but his silence seemed to answer Ryu's suspicion, damn detectives. _"I see and I'm guessing you hurried back because you saw that it was two?"_ Again, Kaito couldn't reply, actually he didn't want to reply because it was true and he was just stubborn to admit it. 

"Does it really matter?" Kaito tried to brush the topic to the side, "I'm here now and we can talk like usual. Want me to start? You see, today I followed your advice from yesterday and—"

 _"That's quite enough,"_ What a polite way to say 'Shut the hell up', _"I'm rather tired today so why don't we cut this talk short? I doubt you'd like for me to take up all your time."_ His words held rigid civility, as if he reverted back to the first time Kaito talked to him and the thief didn't know what exactly triggered the sudden coldness. _"Thank you for tonight, Kaito. Goodnight."_ He hung up before Kaito could disagree, the thief stared blankly at the phone. "What in the world?" 

"Kuroba-san, was that your nightly caller?" Eisuke slide in on his swivel chair, obviously dicking around in it, "Yeah." Kaito answered with a stiff nod, reaching over for the protein bar he couldn't eat earlier, "He was super scary, when I answered the call he demanded to be transferred to you but you weren't here and he was really snippy and sarcastic, I thought I was going to die." Was Ryu really that bad? Sure he came off as rude at first but Kaito saw the caller as a cute tsundere instead. 

"Maybe he's just having a rough time, surely he'll call again tomorrow." Kaito stated, more for himself than Eisuke as he ripped open the protein bar's pack and ate it in three big bites. "I'm gonna get some sleep, take care." Kaito proceeded to lock himself in the Snooze Room, throwing a tiny hissy fit on his bed, "What happened to him all of the sudden? Acting all curt and distanced." Kaito mumbled against his pillow, he couldn't comprehend what Ryu might be going through but it sure as hell bothered him quite a bit. After all, he did promise to make it up to the man for last night's call and he had a fun night of talking planned out...

* * *

_"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." — Riou Mason Busujima_

* * *

Breakfast came faster than expected, Kaito felt more rested than before but heavier and less motivated than yesterday. "Ugh," The male groaned out as he stumbled out of the room, the other three were already eating breakfast by the kitchen and from the smell of it, it was Chinese takeouts again. 

"Good morning, Kuroba-san. Today, I wanted to show you the progress of my training." Eisuke informed with a chirped, Kaito watched as Aoko straightened her posture and pulled out ear plugs, something told him that this was all Aoko's doing, "Here goes!" Eisuke exclaimed before Kaito could have time to wear ear plugs. "Maybe I've done enough, your golden child grew up." Eisuke's voice, as expected, was ear-gratingly horrible. It sounded like metal claws continuously scraping against a steel board and Kaito wanted nothing more than the singing to stop, "Akako," Kaito whimpered out, "Be a dear and stab my ears, please?" Akako took sadistic pleasure in not doing so, "I can't hear you, Kuroba-kun." 

Saved by the phone, Eisuke stopped singing when he heard the ringing and went to answer it, for most of the call it was normal. Until Eisuke decided that it was a good idea to sing, "We gotta stop him, he's gonna traumatized his client!" Kaito screeched as Eisuke began to sing his song in all his horrifyingly high pitched glory. "Oh my gods, please let the client survive this." The thief nervously rifled through his cards, fumbling and sending cards flying everywhere, "Gods, shut up. He can handle himself," Aoko hissed back, smacking the back of Kaito's head. 

"Maybe I've done enough, finally catching up. For the first time I'm seeing an image of my brokenness, utterly worthy of love." Eisuke sang what seemed to be the last lines and Kaito was ecstatic, "Are you still there, Miss?" Eisuke wondered out as he finished his song and for one insane moment, Kaito wondered if the client died from Eisuke's horrible singing but instead he heard laugher from the phone and he could only stare in utter bewilderment at the unexpected development. "Thank goodness, you're finally laughing! It seems that my little lullaby worked!" Eisuke exclaimed with a bright smile, continuing to chat with the client until they finally hung up.

"You," Kaito started with a blink of his dry eyes (he's been staring for 40 seconds straight sheesh), "You did great," He released the words as if they were hard to say because they were since Kaito thought of Eisuke as a sort of incompetent, not really useless but just slightly substandard when it came to calls but seeing the display from earlier really changed his view on the intern, "Keep up the good work." Eisuke beamed and cheered at Kaito's honest words.

The next few hours were spent in total silence. No calls, no problems, nothing but peace and absolute boredom. So you can probably guess how excited Kaito was for Ryu's call that night. 

"It's one minute till two!" He exclaimed in giggly joy, waiting for the phone to ring as the final seconds ticked in. "It's two!!" Kaito celebrated, picking the phone up and pressing it to his ear, he was met with the dial tone and he was very confused. "Maybe he doesn't have signal," He pondered out with a pout, impatiently waiting for Ryu's call but the clock ticked on and it turned 3 without a single call from Ryu and Kaito felt betrayed, "What's he doing?" Kaito wondered to himself, staring at the silent telephone and it finally rang!

"Hello, Ryu? Why did you call so late?" Kaito huffed out to the phone, 

_"Kaito-niichan?"_ Kaito chastised himself for how hard his heart sunk when the voice on the other side was neither deep nor manly instead it was a child, specifically the child who he should be focused on right now, "Hanako-chan," Kaito answered, so what if Ryu hasn't called? He's probably passed out from all of his all-nighters or something. "How are you, love?"

 _"I'm doing great! Today I got to eat a whole apple for myself?"_ Normally a growing child had to eat more than an apple for a day but apparently Hanako's father thought that his child was a bird, _"But it's lonely right now and I can't sleep..."_

"How about this? Kaito-niichan will sing you a song!" Kaito offered with a smile, right now he had to forget about Ryu and focus on Hanako, _"Really, you will? Yay!!"_ Hanako cheered quietly, "I'm not surprised, not everything lasts. I've broken my heart so many times, I stop keeping track."

 _"Oh no, is this a sad song?"_ Hanako gasped out and Kaito let out a small chuckle, "No it's a happy song." 

"Talk myself in, I talk myself out, I get all worked up and then I let myself down." 

_"It is sad! Don't be sad, Kaito-niichan! I'll be here to make you happy!"_ Gods, Kaito could cry from this purity. Hanako huffed and puffed on her side of the phone, apparently intent on transferring happy energy to Kaito. "I swear, it's a happy song just listen." 

"I tried so very hard not to lose it, I came up with a million excuses, I thought I thought of every possibility." 

_"Are you trying to make me cry?"_ Hanako probably had a pout by now and Kaito can't really be annoyed at her cuteness, "No, never." He never really noticed how much the song spoke of him, damn he was relating to old songs. He must be getting old.

"And I know someday that it'll all turn out! You'll make me work so we can work to work it out." 

_"You lost me at work..."_ Hanako mumbled out dizzily and Kaito let out a small laugh, "Then why don't I sing slower? Pay attention to the next lines, dear." 

"And I promise you kid, I get so much more than I get, I just haven't met you yet."

Hanako fell silent, finally realizing what the song really meant and Kaito grinned. It seemed like a perfect theme song for them.

_"I might have to wait, I'll never give up. I guess it's half timing and the other half's luck. Wherever you are, whenever it's right. You come out of nowhere and into my life."_

He heard faint sniffles from the other side, worried that Hanako might send herself into an attack, he stopped singing. "Hanako?" 

_"Keep singing, Kaito-niichan. I'm just really happy right now,"_ She answered with a snuffle, the sound of fabric rustled into the speaker and Kaito wanted to help wipe her tears away. 

"And I know that we can be so amazing, and baby your love is gonna change me, and now I can see every possibility...." 

"I just haven't met you yet...." Kaito sang the remaining lines as gently as he could, listening to the muffled cries of Hanako. The song ended with one last word and Kaito began to coo out to the crying child, "Don't cry, Hanako. You don't have to cry," Hanako's cries grew louder at his words and Kaito smiled down on his hands, _"They're happy tears!"_ Hanako informed with a cough, blowing her nose and calming herself down to sniffles. _"It's my first time hearing a song dedicated for me and I'm just so happy, I love you Kaito-niichan."_ Kaito could feel his heart swell from her overwhelmingly happy words, 

"I love you too, Hanako. I promise, I'll find you soon so that we can eat ice cream together, doesn't that sound fun?" It feels weird to be saying 'I love you' to a kid he's never met before but his heart doesn't really err, it was telling him that she was precious to him, "Now, it's getting late. Why don't you get some sleep, dear?" 

_"Mhm, I'll go and get some rest. Goodnight, Kaito-niichan..."_ Hanako yawned and hung up, Kaito determinedly decided that he must find her house at all costs. "Eisuke," Kaito called out, "Starting tomorrow, I'll be spending most of my night shift out searching for Hanako's house so could you cover for me?" But you know, despite all his bravado he still made sure he stays till at least 3 in the morning to make sure that he didn't miss a single call from Ryu and the implications that he cared more about Ryu than Hanako bothered him to no end. 

Turns out, searching by hang glider was far easier than on foot. Kaito was able to see every house from above and it made his search far easier, the only downside to it was that he had to use his KID attire so the news has been exploding with _'KAITO KID HAS TOO MUCH TIME ON HIS HANDS?? ELUSIVE PHANTOM THIEF CAUGHT CIRCLING AROUND TOKYO.'_ and Aoko's bought at least fifteen different coverages of the same goddamn article just to laugh at it in front of him but the trouble was worth it, he was able to narrow down the search even more, having surveyed over a hundred houses and cutting the list shorter than ever. 

"This is amazing! We only have a handful of houses left, we'll be able to find Hanako's house in no time! How did you manage to search all those houses, Kuroba-san?!" Eisuke huffed with stars twinkling in his eyes, Kaito sweat dropped and shook his head, "Just dumb luck." As if he could say that he's been hang gliding all over Tokyo. 

"Are you leaving?" Eisuke asked once more as Kaito threw on a jacket, "Yeah, I have a follow through that I promised I'd do so I'll be leaving, bye~." 

The walk to the Tsumugi's was short, Mrs. Tsumugi— though she wanted to be called Mrs. Rin, greeted him with a warm smile and a welcoming gesture.

"Good afternoon, Madam. I came to check up on Ren," Old habits die hard sometimes as Kaito have a flourish bow, "Would it be alright if I went up to his room?" Mrs. Rin gave him an eyebrow raise as if to state the obvious, "Dear, I think your house privileges are very obvious." Kaito gave a short laugh, bowing towards Mr. Tsumugi before going up to Ren's room, knocking twice Kaito patiently waited for the boy to open the door. After a minute, the door cracked open to reveal a tired Ren holding a sketchbook. 

"Yo, Ren. I came to visit." Kaito greeted with a smile, letting the boy open the door a little bit more so that the supervisor could come in, "How are you?" He asked, taking a seat on the floor while Ren made himself comfy on a beanbag, "Fine," The boy replied with a sideway glance, obviously not fine because Kaito could see the heavy bags underneath his eyes and the hastily hidden bandages in a drawer by the bed. 

"Have you been sleeping well?" Kaito asked once more, Ren stiffly nodded and clung to his sketchbook, silent and recluse, "I know! Why don't I show you some magic tricks," Kaito exclaimed out of the blue, standing up and drawing a few cards, "If you can guess how I did my tricks, I'll tell something about myself but if you fail," Kaito pointed at the worn sketchbook, "You have to show me a page, sounds fun right?" Ren shook his head and curled up into a ball, "Why are you even here? I don't need your help anymore." 

Kaito pursed his lips and knelt down beside the boy, "Dear, you called me once for help and I'm not leaving until I do so, not because it's my job but because I care about you, your mother and father too so let us help okay?" Ren bit his lip and contemplated about it for a moment before nodding, Kaito grinned and stood once more initiating a simple magic trick. 

"You simply memorized every card didn't you?" Ren answered with a faint twinkle in his eyes, Kaito let out a laugh, "I see you have a keen eye but how about this?!" Kaito threw a card in the air and caught it, it promptly exploded into confetti and smoke, leaving behind a small ball with a smiley face on it, "How did you?" Now Kaito had all of Ren's attention, the magician smiled feeling a rather familiar fondness at the expression the boy held. It reminded him very much of Conan whenever Kaito did a complex trick for his heist, it was very cute. 

"Can't guess?" He teased with a small nudge, "Don't worry about it but since you guessed the first one, here's a fact about me," Kaito leaned in close and whispered quietly, "I hate fish."

Ren gaped, "But I love fish especially breaded fish fillet and oysters!" Kaito shuddered and let out a cry of fear, jumping back and comically crying, "I trusted you!" Ren cracked a small smile, he fell into silence as if in deep contemplation before lifting his sketchbook and opening it to a page with much hesitation, "I drew this after our first meeting, I never wanted to show it to you but it would be rude if I didn't show my muse the somewhat finished product." He held the sketchbook up with a tomato red blush, the page contained an unfinished colored sketch of an angel, wearing a toga and golden anklets, on his back were two enormous pure white wings outstretched to frame the sun that served as his background. The angel's face was softly carved out, high cheekbones and small freckles dusted his cheeks but his eyes were otherworldly, half-closed, the smallest hints of a color not blue nor purple peeked behind long lashes and Kaito didn't know what to say, well actually maybe he did, "This is definitely not me, I'm not that angelic." Ren shook his head and grumbled, "This is my interpretation of you so just take it as it is." 

"Okay, you got me beaten. I don't know what to say," Kaito stared, jaws slacked at the sketch. Most of the sketch were barely colored but the _eyes_ , Kaito's never paid attention to his own appearance before but he never knew he possessed such a weird eye color. "It's beautiful, love. You have a talent," He informed with an affectionate hug, "I love it! I can't wait to see more of your drawings!" 

Ren smiled sheepishly at his words and shyly returned the hug, "Thank you," he whispered before pulling back, rubbing his eye and shuffling away, 

"You look like you need some sleep," Kaito informed with a chuckle, leading a terrified Ren to the bed, "I can't sleep," The boy whimpered out, "Too many nightmares..." Kaito held onto the boy's hand and laid him down, "Fear not! Kaito-niichan's here and I'll sing you a lullaby, I'm really great at this so don't worry!" The look of disbelief on Ren's face was almost hilarious.

"Sweetheart, you look a little tired. When did you last eat?" Kaito sang with a smug expression, taking in the triumphant pleasure he received when Ren's expression morphed to shock. "Tell me, is something wrong? If something's wrong, you can count on me. You know I'll take my heart clean apart, if it helps yours beat." Ren squirmed around the bed, obviously against the words that Kaito sang but the supervisor made sure his feelings were conveyed properly, "It's okay if you can't find the words. Let me take your coat and this weight off of your shoulders." Ren must have been feeling sarcastic today because the boy mimed taking a coat off with a roll of his eyes, 

"Are you gonna try to sleep or what?" Kaito hissed with a roll of his own eyes, "Want me to sleep beside you?" That seemed to have stilled Ren as the teen finally tried to sleep, "Like a force to be reckoned with. A mighty ocean or a gentle kiss, I will love you with every single thing I have." By the time Kaito finished the first chorus, Ren was fast asleep, arm loosely wrapped around his sketchbook while the other held onto Kaito's hand, "Goodnight, sweetheart." Kaito whispered with a small smile, staying still for the next couple of minutes before reluctantly leaving the room. 

"He's asleep for now, I'll come back again same time and date next week." Kaito informed with a beam to the relieved parents, "Thank you so much, Mr. Kuroba! Is there anything we can do to repay you?" 

"Hmm, why not buy Ren some more art supplies and if you could, enrolling him to an art school would be amazing!" Kaito suggested with a smile before exiting the house, leaving behind two confused adults. "Now I gotta prepare for my next search for Hanako~!" Kaito sang out, opening the door to Min's office. 

"Hanako-chan!" He heard the sound of Eisuke's voice shouting by his desk and Kaito's blood ran cold, Eisuke looked up and towards him with tears shining, threatening to spill. "Kuroba-san!" The intern exclaimed, running up to the thief and clinging onto his jacket sleeves for dear life, "You have to help her, she— she—" 

"Eisuke, calm down. Breathe!" Kaito managed to find his own voice, enough to slap some sense into the crying man but Eisuke refused to stop, "You have to help Hanako-chan, she's being attacked!" More wails and sobs escaped Eisuke's lips as the words sunk into Kaito's brain and with no hesitation whatsoever, he sat Eisuke down and sprinted out of Min's and down the road, _Get to Tokyo, get to Tokyo now!!_

Kaito turned a corner into a dark alleyway and pulled out his KID gear, donning the attire and spreading his hang glider. He had to get to Tokyo fast, no matter what the means! 

He arrived after a long travel, flying from Ekoda to Tokyo was still quite a long ride, no matter how fast he tried to go and this only worsened his anxiety, landing a few streets away from his last search area and with a quick clothing change, Kaito ran down the street and towards the last few houses he had to check. _"Hanako, please be okay!"_

He stopped a house away from a commotion, police cars littered the streets as gossiping neighbors stood by the sidelines. Kaito's eyes drifted to the house on his right. The window had flowers, orchids and pansies. His heart beat sped up. The house had blue and white walls. His breath quickened. The house beside it had white walls. His palms were sweaty. The neighbors gossiping said the name _'Hanako'_.

"Excuse me!" Kaito ran forward, through the crowd and pass the Keep Out Tape. "What happened here?" He asked breathlessly, eyes wider than a saucer. "Sir, you can't be here! This is a crime scene and only people related to the murder can be here." A police officer exclaimed and Kaito grew even angrier at his words. "I'm the representative for Melpomene's, the child Hanako's been calling our hotline and I have the right to see my client!" 

"Oh!" The officer exclaimed, "I'm very sorry, I didn't know that we still had another witness. My bad, please come with me. You can talk to Inspector Megure." Kaito was led to living room of the house, which he noted looked like a war zone with blood splatters on the walls and floor, for once in his life Kaito prayed those weren't Hanako's. 

Inspector Megure was a chubby middle aged man who wore a trench coat and a hat, "You must be Melpomene's representative, yes?" Kaito nodded stiffly, Inspector Megure wore a grave look as he spoke, "We hate to inform you but the victims of this murder case are Shiroha Hanami, aged thirty four, and Hanako, aged six, mother and daughter were both brutally murdered an hour and a half ago." Kaito suddenly felt faint, as if the world decided to drown him. He couldn't hear Inspector Megure properly, his vision was dotted with red but above all, it felt like his heart was gruesomely ripped out, beating and bloody. 

"The killer was thirty five year old, construction worker Shiroha Mahiru, husband and father of the victims." Kaito let out a snarl, hands balling into fists. He was going to get his revenge, how dare he— "May I see the bodies?" Kaito asked as coolly as he could, Inspector Megure shook his head. "We aren't allowed to reveal that yet, not until we have an official statement from the autopsy team so we'll have to ask for your patience." Kaito clicked his tongue, "I see, thank you. Melpomene's will offer an official testimony on a later date." He informed, "On another note, who caught the murderer?"

"Oh? Mouri-kun did, he solved it just a little while ago. To think that Mahiru would try to cover up his own fingerprints and made it look like Hanami killed Hanako in a drunken rage then committed suicide, I would have never imagined that!" Kaito nodded his head, feeling a tad bit apathetic. _He knows that he was just in denial, not until he sees Hanako, not yet—_

"Thank you, Inspector Megure. I'll take my leave now," Kaito bowed and made his way to the door before he could be questioned, "I have a detective agency to visit." 

Mouri's Detective Agency was as peaceful as ever, as if they hadn't stumbled upon the dead corpse of someone who Kaito considered a little sister. Mouri Ran answered the door and for one dangerous moment, the karate champion glared at him. "You're not Shinichi, are you?" The girl finally spoke up after an intense moment of glaring, Kaito shook his head, "No, I'm an agent from Melpomene's, I handled calls for Hanako and I was recently informed that your father solved her case?" 

"Oh! I see, come in! I'm Mouri Ran, wait here while I go fetch Dad!" Mouri Ran led him to the couch and disappeared outside once more to fetch a bumbling Kogorou and a tiny Conan trailing behind. For the second time that day, Kaito prayed that the little detective would remain ignorant and hopefully not find out his real identity. 

"I'm Kuroba Kaito, an agent from Melpomene's and I handled calls for Hanako." He introduced himself, pointedly ignoring the seemingly 'innocent' stares he got from Conan. Surely he wouldn't be able to tell right? He's been so careful with hiding his face after all!! "What does a call center want with us?" Kogorou blandly remarked, lighting a cigar and smoking without restraint. Ran rounded the couch and placed down cups of tea for everyone, "Dad, no smoking or at least open a window!" 

"I came to ask a favor actually," Kaito informed with a sheepish laugh, "I was hoping you'd know where they took her body because I wanted to pay my respects to her." Mostly to get over the stupid denial he was stuck in, "Like we'd know, we left as soon as we solved the case!" Kogorou answered with a huff, crossing his arms and clicking his tongue. "Dad, your manners!" Mouri Ran whined out, smacking a circular tray on the detective's knee. 

"I see, that's quite a shame." Kaito answered with a (fake but of course, well crafted) smile, "I was hoping you'd know but I guess my hopes were misplaced." He let out a soft sigh as he stood, thanking Ran for the tea he didn't drink, "I'll go try the police station then. Thank you for your time," Ran, just like how Aoko described her, wore a guilty expression because she was such a saint and probably felt guilty that they couldn't be of much help. "I'll show him to the door!" Conan offered and Kaito began to sweat, he did not want to be anywhere near the little detective at all.

"Come on, Kuroba-niichan." For the record, the way Conan rolled the 'R' in his name was downright creepy and scary and Kaito would like it very much if he could get away as fast as he could, "Y-Yeah." 

Conan led him out of the room and down the stairway, uncharacteristically humming an upbeat tune, "I know where they're keeping Hanako's body." The child piped up just as Kaito was about to make a sprint down the street, "Don't make serious jokes like this, little boy." Kaito laughed out but Conan was serious, azure eyes flaming with an ulterior motive, "I know where they're keeping her and I can tell you, on one condition." Kaito pursed his lips and looked down at the child, was he lying? He didn't look like he was but what was the condition, "On what condition?" 

Conan seemed to think about it for a moment before piping up, "Let me guide you there, I won't say where it is but I want you to go with me and follow me." And if he takes him to a police station, Kaito will officially declare that the world hated him but hey, beggars can't be choosers. "Deal." 

The morgue was a simple dark and gloomy building with black doors upfront and a huge Underworld vibe coming from it, Kaito could not phrase how relieved he was that Conan didn't lead him to prison and actually kept his word, "The staff are on break time right now so we can sneak into the examination room." Conan informed, opening the door and walking in. Like he said, the place was pretty much deserted with all the staff probably enjoying a delicious P&B sandwich in the break rooms. "This way," Conan led him by the hand and Kaito couldn't help but wonder how such a small child could have so much knowledge on so many things. They passed by an empty guard desk who left his radio open and behind it was a simple door. 

_"Hey there, listeners! This is DJ Love coming at you with a requested song, here's 'One' by Sleeping at Last!"_

"Through that door," Conan answered as the sound of music filled the silent halls, "I'll go with you if you're scared." Kaito glared at the cheeky brat and made his way towards the door. With a shaky hand, Kaito opened it and physically felt himself lurch fired at the sight before him. 

On the examination table laid a small girl with a simple white sheet covering her body, her hair was long and wavy, dark brown in hue. Her eyes were open, haunting lifeless purple staring up at the ceiling. Her neck had purple bruises circling it and lower down held multiple stab wounds around the collar bone and ribs. On her toe hung a simple tag that read _Shiroha Hanako_

"Cause of death is strangulation, the stab wounds were inflicted afterwards as a lousy cover up." Conan informed with a coldness Kaito remembered but was too distraught to care. 

"Hanako," Kaito identified the corpse, stumbling towards the corpse. It was just a few days ago that he was singing her to sleep and promising her that they'll eat ice cream together and now here they were, "I finally met you." He whispered out, body shivering from repressed sobs. 

Conan stood a few feet away, coldness thawing at the display of sadness by Kaito. The door opened suddenly and Kaito couldn't really care, "Kuroba-san?" Eisuke greeted him with much surprise, "You were here as well, I just got here and..... Is that Hanako-chan?" Kaito's eyes returned to the cold and pale corpse, mindlessly nodding his head and biting down on his lip. "If only we worked harder.." The intern sniffled out, coming closer to pay his respects to the child. 

"She's in a better place now," Conan spoke up, drawing the attention of the other two towards him, "Ku—" Eisuke gasped out, looking down at the child but a quick glare from Conan seemed to have shut him up. "Conan-kun, it's been a while..." Eisuke let out a nervous laugh, hiding behind an apathetic Kaito. "Long time no see, Hondou-niichan! I thought you were working for the CIA in America?" Eisuke let out an eep and hid even more behind Kaito, said supervisor failed to notice the deadly glare that came from Conan. "S-Some things changed and I'm back in Japan for a bit, how are you and Ran-san?" 

Kaito gritted his teeth and shrugged off the intern, "I'll be going first. Thanks for taking me here, Edogawa-kun. Eisuke, don't forget your shift." The male left with a resounding click of the door, leaving behind Eisuke and Conan.

"W-Wait for me, Kuroba-san!!" Eisuke squeaked out, running after the other male. "See you later, Kudo!" 

"Wait a moment, Hondou." Conan called out, pulling the taller male's pant leg , "I have a favor to ask of you..."

* * *

_"What do you want meaning for? Life is desire, not meaning." — Gentarou Yumeno_

* * *

_"Kaito! This is your fifth consecutive heist this week! You're gonna overwork yourself!"_

Aoko's screeches fell on deaf ears as Kaito took to the sky once more, what she said was true; he had been going on consecutive, back to back heists for the past few days, stealing small jewels whose values couldn't even compete with one precious stone and Kaito didn't really care, he was there for the distraction after all. 

"Lately KID's been going on these small heists, my colleagues said it was pretty scary. That if you see KID, it's as if he isn't his usual self at all. Like he's been possessed by some vengeful spirit or something, scary right?" The gossips were also true, Kaito could testify and he could only blame himself for it. He was trying very hard not to think about a certain girl's death.

"We'll catch KID today for sure! Stay on your toes, task force!!" Inspector Nakamori was as fired up as usual and so was Kaito but for a whole different reason, "One minute till his arrival!" Kaito gritted his teeth and held onto his smoke bombs, _'Now!'_

A puff of smoke exploded at the center of the venue, revealing a small bomb that released paralyzing gas towards nearby officers, "Gas masks on!" Inspector Nakamori exclaimed but let out a startled shout when he felt a sudden electric shock on his side. "I'm very sorry, Inspector Nakamori but I can't have you moving around." KID whispered from behind the older man, in his hand as a stun gun. "But your policy..." The inspector choked out before falling to the ground, amongst the other unconscious men. The venue was an enclosed room so the gas didn't take long in knocking out the other officers until it was only KID left. "This is the fifth time that Tantei-kun didn't attend my heist, how boring." Collecting the jewel was easy enough, sneaking back out was twice as easy. 

"And yet another failure, not Pandora but I guess that's a given, this is just the second largest ruby nothing special at all." Kaito sighed out, tossing the jewel into the owner's office before leaving the venue. On his way home, Kaito caught a glimpse of a familiar glint from a far-off distance and the male stooped low, creeping closer and following the angle of the scope, "What do the crows want with a normal jewel?" Kaito pondered with a frown, hiding behind an alleyway. 

"Maybe reconnaissance? But this direction is..." The scope was pointed north, towards the venue of Kaito's previous heist. Specifically a certain window that showed one Inspector Nakamori talking to a subordinate who handed him a phone, "What do they want from Nakamori-jiisan?" Kaito asked once more, finishing out a listening device. He quickly took out a tampering device and tapped into the radio waves. 

_"Megure, you bastard! What do you want from me this late at night?"_ Nakamori's voice was slightly weakened, obviously due to the shock Kaito delivered via stun gun and he _was_ pretty guilty for using it. 

_"Nakamori, now's not the time for insults! HQ request all able elite officers and inspectors to go to Beika Police Headquarters, we've finally found the base of a wanted organization and we're planning on storming it soon!"_

_"What?! And why are you roping in Division Two? Shouldn't Division One be enough?! Sheesh, how big of an organization are we even talking about?"_

"Hahaha!" KID's laughter echoed in Inspector Nakamori's room, "That sounds like fun, why don't you let me in on it, Inspector Na~ka~mo~ri~!!" KID appeared with much fanfare beside the screaming inspector, "You look like you could use an extra hand so I'll help you because I love you and my task force so much~!" By now, Inspector Nakamori looked ready to explode. "Who needs your help, you slimy thief!" KID disappeared once again with his usual haughty laughter,

_"Nakamori, I hate to break it to you but we do need all the hands we can get."_

"NO WAY IN HELL AM I FIGHTING WITH KAITO KID!" 

_"But Nakamori!!"_

"I'm definitely going," Kaito decided, once he was far enough from the venue, "No matter what." And now the recklessness was talking and Kaito was fully aware of it but he wasn't planning on stop it because he had to find a way to get his mind off of a certain incident after all.

The base of the criminal organization known as the Black Organization was situated in Trap Island, Kaito did not have good memories of that place. 

It took him a while to fool Aoko into thinking that Kaito was simply visiting his client for the night but it worked and Kaito felt guilty for lying to his childhood friend but it was better than going up to her and saying _I'm gonna go on a suicide mission in Trap Island fighting an entire crime organization as KID!_ Definitely better. 

Nakamori had begrudgingly accepted KID's help after a long lecture from Megure about needing every skilled operative they had and now here he was as Kaito KID, loading his card gun for one hell of a fight. 

"K-Kuroba-san?" A timid voice spoke from behind him, "That is you isn't it?" Hondou Eisuke stood before him in a bullet proof vest and a hand gun cocked in his left hand, "What are you doing here?!" The CIA badge on the other male's breast glinted under the moonlight and Kaito attempted to dissuade his suspicion. "What are you talking about? I am the Phantom Thief 1412, I am here to help!" Eisuke didn't seem like he bought KID's act, "It is very dangerous here, civilians and phantom thieves should stay out of this." The Eisuke that stood before him wasn't like the Eisuke Kaito grew accustomed to back at Min's, this Eisuke was headstrong and courageous, the complete opposite of what Kaito was used to. 

"How'd you figure out it was me?" Kaito sighed out, giving up and holding his hands up.

"I was actually told but I can't tell who, hehehe..." Gone was the earlier Eisuke, now it was back to wimpy Eisuke, Kaito narrowed his eyes; did Aoko rat him out? No way. Then who?

"KID, what are you doing here?" And another unexpected person came up! Edogawa Conan looked out of place in his blue jeans, jersey jacket and _Kamen Yaiba_ t-shirt amongst the riot soldiers, "Back at you, Tantei-kun." Once again, Eisuke hid behind Kaito as if fearing the tiny elementary student. "I have business to attend to here, leave it at that." Conan huffed out and my! He was so rude and pushy, he reminded him so much of a certain caller who loved Sherlock books and lemon pie! 

"I'm here to help," Kaito answered as Eisuke scrambled to help with preparations, "I heard that Division One was having a hard time alone so I brought my entire Task Force here~!" Conan didn't seem quite pleased with Kaito's actions, in fact the little kid was seething with rage and something deeper than that?

"You shouldn't have come, what would I do if you of all people die in this fight?" Conan spoke lowly through gritted teeth and Kaito wasn't sure what he meant but the implications that Conan valued Kaito above others sort of warmed Kaito's half dead heart. "Whatever you do, don't go into the West Wing. Stay with Inspector Nakamori's troops," The little detective ordered and Kaito noncommittally nodded his head, "Yeah, yeah. I get it, Tantei-kun." 

Conan let out a huge sigh, "I need some coffee and a slice of pie, this is too stressful." 

"Is coffee and lemon pie staple for detectives?! My gosh!" Kaito huffed out, stomping towards Inspector Nakamori's troops with a pout and Conan chuckled, 

"Stupid thief, it's just me."

* * *

"We will storm in at approximately twenty-four-zero-zero, ready your guns men! Do not waste ammo, always stay with your partner and try to keep a few enemies alive for questioning!" Inspector Nakamori's orders went over KID's head as the troops stood a few meters from the side of the B.O. Base, it was a minute till the start of the operation and Kaito was in charge of support which was somewhat a given because he is carrying a card gun with to battle. 

"Ready!" Inspector Nakamori exclaimed, "Charge!!" In sync, all the riot soldiers ran forward with a battle cry and less than 10 seconds later shots were fired. The inside of the base was like a twisted maze, barely lit and dark, the only source of light were the sparks from the guns being fired. 

"Is that all you've got? I'm just using a card gun!" KID cackled out, shooting a round of cards towards B.O operatives and successfully disarming them, "Inspector Nakamori, after this I want a reward!" The thief exclaimed, kicking away a few guns from the reach of an operative. "Nighty night~." He cooed out, knocking the operatives out with a swift chop to the neck, "This is Nakamori! We've secured the northwest wing with little casualties, proceeding to north position!" The inspector exclaimed into his ear piece, Northwest? Wasn't that awfully close to where Conan told him to stay away from? 

If he was a good boy, he would have heeded Conan's warning but that was only _if_ he was a good boy and he wasn't so with the sneakiness of a fox, KID slipped away and began his sprint towards the West Wing. 

The West Wing was a deserted laboratory wing, signs of evacuation were present and quite recently too as most of the documents and lights were kept open. Kaito didn't know why Conan was so adamant in keeping him away from it.

"Feels like a ghost town," Kaito commented as he walked down the hall, suddenly he heard a gun shot from a nearby room and Kaito quickly ducked, approaching the room with caution and one peeked inside was all he needed. 

Inside was one Edogawa Conan and Hondou Eisuke against two grown men who wielded rifles, one was tall with silver hair and the other was a fat man with a fedora, "Give it up, Gin! We have your base surrounded!" Conan exclaimed, dodging a bullet and shooting a tranquilizer dart that only halted the movements of the silver haired male for a few seconds, "I don't care if this base goes down in flames, we could always rebuild and that will start with your death, you pesky brat!" Eisuke fired a round of bullets towards the burly man by the silverette's side, "Kudo-kun, I'm out of bullets." Eisuke gasped out, fumbling through his pockets in search for any spare ammo. "This is the end of the line, little detective." The silver man cackled out, pointing his gun at the little kid, "Good riddance." 

"No!" 

Kaito bursted into the fray in the nick of time, releasing a shot just before the man could shoot and successfully disarmed him, "Tantei-kun, what were you saying about keeping me out of the West Wing?" He cockily remarked, collecting the injured child into his arms. "I told you not to come.." Conan feebly groaned out, cradling a bullet graze on his arm. "You know you could have died if I didn't save you, right?"

"Kuroba-san, now's not the time for a lovers' spat! Let's take them down," Eisuke ordered, getting into a stance that was suspiciously martial arts-like and Kaito had a similar idea. "Together now, go!" Kaito launched himself at the silver haired man with Conan still in his arms and did one swift aerial kick to the side of his head, rendering the man incapacitated while Eisuke made quick work of flipping the other man over his shoulder, "Now wasn't that easy?" Kaito hummed, gracefully landing on his feet and handing Conan over to Eisuke. "Let's tie them up and leave them outside for the police to find." And so they did and after that they were on their way to regroup with Inspector Nakamori's group when Kaito heard a rustle in one of the rooms, with Eisuke currently focused on carrying an injured Conan, Kaito managed to slip away unnoticed.

Inside the room were multiple documents and stored experiments, at the center stood Snake, in all his fedora and mustache glory. "My, look what destiny led me too." Kaito informed, sneaking up on the man. 

"Kaito KID!!" Snake growled out, brandishing his pistol and attempting to fire a shot but Kaito was quick to shoot the gun from his hand, "Now that you mention it, I did see one of your lackeys spying on Inspector Nakamori, what business do you have with him? Care to share it with me?" He dodged a hook, a fast hook too, apparently Snake was a rather good boxer. "None of your business, die!" Kaito rolled his eyes at the obvious hot headed attitude, moving back a few feet from the man, the thief took a low stance and charged forward. 

"What can a puny thief even do?" Snake laughed as he charged forward as well, overly confident that he could overpower the smaller male but Kaito had a trick up his sleeve. With one resounding shock, Snake fell to his knees and sideways, "A stun gun, that's what a thief has." Kaito informed, tying the unconscious man up and hauling him to the side. 

"Now what was my beloved Snake looking through?" Kaito approached a messy desk and found multiple experiment results on it, "Silver Bullet?" He mused out, squinting at the complicated notes. 

"Silver Bullet, the original name of one of the Black Organization's projects," A voice answered from behind him and Kaito cocked his card gun, "No need to shoot, it's just me." A little girl stepped in and Kaito recognized her as the girl who sometimes tagged along with Conan on his heists, her name as Haibara was it? Yeah, Haibara. She was very scary during the Kirin's Horn Heist. "Is the police force enlisting children too or am I just seeing kids today?" The thief joked out but Haibara continued,

"It was created years ago with the vision of a potent drug, the research was led by Atsushi and Elena Miyano over five decades ago and the research went smoothly until the research lab went down in flames," Haibara spoke as if she wasn't a child, Kaito took a step to the side as the little girl went to retrieve a few documents from the side, "Most believed that most of the research burned with the lab but that wasn't the case," Kaito didn't like where this was going, his gut was screaming at him for him to cover his ears, "They were able to salvaged one critical prototype of the drug."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Kaito questioned out with a frown as Haibara shook her tiny head, "Because you are connected to it, Kaito KID, for the jewel of immortality that you are looking for is the Silver Bullet." 

It didn't make any sense, what was she talking about? 

"A little bit before the fire accident in their laboratory, Elena and Atsushi were able to complete a prototype of the Silver Bullet. It was a valuable piece of research so they stored it safely, they encased it in a crystal. A crystal who's density was hard enough to withstand the fire, they left it behind when they died. Yes, that's right the Jewel of Immortality known as Pandora is the prototype of the Silver Bullet." Kaito gaped as Haibara fished out a document and showed it to the thief, the document listed a vague description of how they were able to crystallize the prototype and the side effects it had. 

"Years after the fire, a ridiculous rumor started to spread underground about a stone that grants a person immortality and a branch of the Black Organization decided to secede from them to pursue the rumored gem," Haibara informed and Kaito almost fell onto his butt from the shock, "B-But, what about the holding it up to the moon thing?"

"That one's still true. Holding it up to the sun would damage the pill inside and you wouldn't be able to see it so using the moon's light is the best choice to see it clearly and the rumored red shine of the jewel inside is the red hue of the pill. Everything about Pandora is mostly true but over-exaggerated. It doesn't give the perfect immortality they want," Haibara let out a short sigh, collecting a handful of documents and stuffing them inside a duffel bag. "Rest assured though, Pandora and the Silver Bullet are both going to be destroyed by me," Turning to face him, Haibara regarded him with a piercing stare,

"So, with that information. How will you proceed, O Magician Underneath The Moonlight?"

Kaito didn't know.

* * *

_"The real world is much smaller than the imaginary." — Doppo Kannonzaka_

* * *

"Kuroba-san, thank you for helping us the other day during the Take Down!" Eisuke's voice was chippy and loud for such an early morning, Kaito was still a little hung over from the previous night, "Ah! What's with all these beer bottles, geez Kuroba-san. I understand the need to celebrate but modesty is still a thing," Yeah, it was but Kaito was drinking for a whole different reason, "Imagine what Nakamori-san would do if she sees all of this," To his defense, he only drank an entire case of beer and it doesn't even amount to what Aoko can drink on New Year's Eve. 

"Don't be so loud this early in the morning, kid." Kaito grumbled, scratching the back of his head and letting out a pained groan. Why was it so bright in a room with no windows? 

It's been a few days since the Black Organization Take Down and news about the operation was everywhere, including a two page spread about how the Kaito KID actually lent the police a hand along accompanied by candid sneaky photos taken by some officers of the phantom thief loading his card gun and Kaito could only thank the gods that his face was blurry.

Obviously, Aoko saw the news and proceeded to chew the supervisor out for six hours straight about how reckless he as (although it was intentional) and how disappointed she was of him, all of which were true and Kaito would have felt repentant about it if he wasn't so depressed at the moment. 

It's also been a few days since his discovery of the Silver Bullet Project which was apparently the Stone of Immortality, Pandora that he had been searching for, for almost 6 years. The stone that his father died for was a prototype of a bigger project, the stone that Kaito spent hours, weeks, months planning heists for was an unfinished prototype. A _prototype_. 

He didn't quite know how to feel, in fact he hasn't tried to even fathom what that meant and what he should do moving forward. He's been drinking away his sorrow for the entirety of yesterday and today. 

"Maybe you should get some rest, Kuroba-san. You don't look so good..." Eisuke was back to normal, as if he didn't judo flip a 300 pound man a few days ago and Kaito periodically reminded himself to be a little bit more careful around the intern (who he now considered a full-time employee because it was well over his stay and Eisuke wasn't showing any signs of leaving yet). "'M fine." Kaito groaned out, staggering to the kitchen for some water and a dose of aspirin. 

"I'll be in the snooze room, wake me up if you need help or something." Eisuke regarded him with knowing worry that annoyed the hell out of Kaito. Whoever told Eisuke about his secret identity was a dipshit and Kaito was not pleased that another one of his friends knew about his other job. 

He slept most of the morning away but despite all the rest, his headache refused to leave him. "Kaito! Get up!" Must everyone at Min's have to be so loud? Kaito sat up to the sight of an angry Aoko with her hands on her hips and the deadliest expression equipped, "Eisuke told me you've been drinking and on your shift too! What's wrong with you?" Her question came more as a demand and Kaito was reminded of their heart-to-heart talk a few days ago where he promised that he'll actually try to communicate with her and gods, why did it have to be so hard? 

"When I fought at the Take Down," Kaito started, choking on his own saliva, "I ran into Snake, I knocked him out and I discovered— well, I was informed of," He took a deep breath, cradling his throbbing head, "I was informed of a certain project that was linked to Pandora and—" He tried to keep the details as little as possible, he didn't want Aoko to get involved with a criminal organization no matter what the costs so he told the light version, about how Pandora was apparently a fraud and how it was already being taken care of. 

"And now it's over, just like that. All these years of suffering gone with the wind." Kaito finished with a gentle tremble, Aoko was stunned speechless. Neither of them made a move, the only sound they heard were each other's heavy breaths. "Kaito," Aoko started, taking kitten steps towards the thief and engulfing him a tight embrace, "Congratulations..." But was it really something to celebrate? Kaito couldn't find the heart to agree as Aoko cried of relief, all he could do was gently comfort her with a stroke of her hair. "Thank you, Aoko. Thanks for everything." 

"Now turn those corners up!" Aoko exclaimed, sniffling back anymore tears and looking up to press the corners of Kaito's lips and really, Kaito can't deny such a pure wish, "Or else the happiness will spill out," Kaito answered with a light chuckle, giving his best half smile to the girl and she seemed satisfied with it. "Let's go back to work!" Aoko barked, bouncing back to her feet with a quick wipe of her tears. "We can celebrate together later, for now Eisuke told me that you still have a client to visit?" 

Aah, he had completely forgotten about Ren in his drunken stupor! "Right, I better get going." Ugh, his head was a mess and so were his emotions. Hopefully he could sort out his feelings on the way to Ren's. 

Turns out, hoping wasn't the key to Kaito's problem because the walk to Ren's only worsened his condition. All that was left was a gloomy rain cloud above him and he might just be the epitome of sadness, "I got to get my shit together for Ren." He told himself with a quick slap of his face, knocking on the door Kaito greeted Mrs. Rin with his biggest smile and grandest bow. "May I go to Ren?" He asked with the most charming tone he could muster, Mrs. Rin laughed at his display and gestured for him to enter, "Welcome, Mr. Kuroba. Ren's up at the attic painting." So they actually followed his request, wow. "Thank you," Kaito climbed the stairway and up the ladder that led to the attic.

As per Kaito's request, they did buy more art supplies for Ren and at the corner of the attic hung a school blazer for a prestige arts school. Many easels and canvases littered the floor and at the center sat Ren, who was busy sketching something on his usual sketchbook. "You have so much canvases and you still use that sketchbook?" He snuck up behind the teen and blew into his ear. 

"Kaito-niichan!" Ren exclaimed, shutting his sketchbook and turning to face him with a red face, "Don't sneak up on me like that!" 

"Oh? I'm Kaito-niichan now? Aww, you're making me blush." He sat on a dusty stool beside the teen and ruffled his hair, "How are you, kid?" 

"I'm..... Not fine," Ren confessed with a small smile, "But I'm getting there, thanks to you." The smaller male gave him a small nudge, "I heard from Mrs. Tsumugi that you used your favor to kickstart my art studies, you didn't have to do that you know." Kaito shot him a carefree smile and shook his head, "Not true, it's totally worth it!" Ren let out a small laugh and gave up, knowing that Kaito was as stubborn as a mule. 

"Will you be my muse for today?" Ren sheepishly asked, pulling up an easel and canvas. "Sure," Kaito nodded and sat in front of him, Ren began to sketch. What he was sketching, Kaito didn't know because he was simply asked to sit up straight and look forward. 

"Could you look to the left?" Ren asked and Kaito followed, "You look a little sad today, did something happen?" The teen asked and Kaito almost groaned, why was everyone he knew so keen? "Nothing much," The thief answered, eyes darting around for anything to look at. Oh, what a cute portrait of a kitten! "Kaito-niichan, I know that's a lie and you can't expect me to turn a blind eye on it." Kaito fell silent, listening to the scrapes and strokes of Ren's pencil.

"I know that face well," Ren informed, "I used to use that face everyday, it's the face of someone who's struggling with something they can't handle alone." The teen peeked from behind his canvas, "Tell me, I won't say anything but just tell me." His voice was soft and mature, Kaito wondered if he was truly the adult between the two of them. 

Unbeknownst to him, salty tears began to roll down his cheeks. All he could feel were waves of emotions repeatedly hitting him. He remained still, fearing that if he looked at Ren, he would breakdown fully. "I just don't know what to do," Kaito choked out, feeling thin arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders and pulled him close. His face was pressed against the crook of Ren's neck, he had to stop crying! He was there to cheer Ren up, not cry! 

"Shh," Ren cooed, "It's okay." He whispered and Kaito clung onto the other's arm, "I don't know what you're going through but I'll be here to support you, think of it as my payment for changing my life." The boy's words were full of gratitude and kindness, he didn't pry any further and merely comforted him. Kaito didn't know why but something about it just made everything unexplainably like home. 

"A treasured person died the other day," Kaito finally said after minutes of silent crying, "I haven't been able to wrap my head around it and on top of that, I discovered that something I've been working on for years was meaningless." What he was doing was probably wrong, he shouldn't be spilling his guts to a former suicidal person. Damn, why was he so weak?

"Was it your fault that they died?" Ren asked and Kaito shook his head, "Then you shouldn't feel sad, you should smile instead. Because you have to live for them too, smile for them and do the stuff they couldn't do. Isn't that the best things to do for the departed?" Kaito nodded his head slowly, Ren smiled and continued on, "And the product might be meaningless but the time you spent on it stays, it isn't worthless because it made you who you are today. A kind, caring and patient man who worries about everyone but himself. That's something you can't buy in the material world." Kaito hung onto every word that he said, letting it sink into his thick skull and it was as if he was enlightened. 

"This too shall pass, remember?" Ren said with a bright smile, patting Kaito's head and moving back to his canvas, "I'll be with you just like how you were there for me, you're like the family I never had." And maybe, things were looking up.

* * *

"Welcome home, Kuroba-san!" Eisuke greeted from his cubicle shooting the supervisor a smile, "I'm home." Kaito answered with a small smile, sitting down at his desk. "From today onwards, I'm going to be a full-time employee!" Eisuke informed joyously, flashing his official ID and calling card. "After the Takedown, I realized that I'm not really meant for the battlefield so I'll focus all of my strength on helping others." Kaito felt genuinely happy for the now full time worker, Eisuke had come a long way from the shy, bumbling intern he was from Day One. He couldn't help but feel proud for him. 

"By the way, what happened to Tan—Edogawa-kun? I left the operation a little earlier than most so I didn't get to accompany you two to the sick bay." Eisuke gave him a secretive smile and a chuckle, "I was told to keep it a secret." Kaito stared in disbelief as Eisuke furtively let out more giggles, what in the world did Eisuke know?

"Oh! Would you look at the time, I better go to sleep soon!" Eisuke exclaimed, out of the blue. Jumping out of his chair and practically scrambling for his seat, the black haired male quickly entered the Snooze Room without much of a fuss leaving Kaito very confused, "What's up with him?" The supervisor wondered out with a furrow of his eyebrows, spinning in his chair. "Well, I'm alone so I guess I'll cover up these puffy eyes." Halfway through putting concealer on his eyelids, the phone rang.

The clock read 2AM and Kaito's heart beat sped up as a plethora of emotions stirred up inside him, his hand shakily reached out for the phone and picked it up.

"Hello, this is Melpomene's Help Hotline. How may I be of service to you tonight?" 

_"I thought we were past the formality stage but I guess I was wrong to hope so,"_ Kaito's grip on the phone tightened at the familiar voice, the nerve of this guy! _"It's been quite a long time, I hope you haven't forgotten about me— Kaito? Are you still there?"_

"Where have you been all this time!" Kaito shouted into the phone, "Suddenly leaving, not calling for weeks and then you just pop up, out of nowhere as if nothing happened! Can you even understand how angry I am right now?!" His voice filled the entire room and suddenly, he was thankful that Eisuke decided to retire to the Snooze Room early. 

"I've been going through hell for the past week and everyday I waited for your calls! I know, it's selfish but I waited for you and you just disappeared all of the sudden and I—" Kaito held back frustrated tears, he waited every night for his call and he knew it was selfish and wrong but they both had an unspoken promise that they'd always talk at night and he just _disappeared_.

 _"I know,"_ Ryu answered in the smallest voice Kaito's ever heard from him, _"I know and I'm sorry for that but I have my reasons as to why I couldn't call."_

"What reasons? Care to share, Mr. Detective?" Kaito spat out and as expected, Ryu didn't answer. "I knew it, you're just lying aren't you?"

 _"No!"_ Ryu exclaimed and Kaito almost believed him, _"I do have reasons but I can't tell them yet but I promise I will, in the near future."_ He wasn't making any sense anymore, Kaito was still angry, he couldn't just erase weeks of pent up anger and despair but even he knew that it was petty and selfish to be even remotely angry that Ryu hasn't called but he couldn't really stop what his stupid heart was feeling. 

"I'm mad at you," Kaito informed as civilized as he could, wiping away the leftover tears before they fell, "I'm still mad at you for suddenly disappearing like that but—" 

_"Hold on to that thought,"_ Ryu spoke up and it irked Kaito because hello? He was having a reconciliation moment with him and he still chose to be goddamn rude, _"I don't want to hear it through the phone,"_ Kaito's heart was definitely trying to break his rib cage at this point, his face felt like he had a fever too, unpleasantly pleasant actually. _"So hold on to that thought and wait for me, please?"_

"You do realize you used that same line to your friend and it ended badly right?" Kaito answered with a roll of his eyes.

 _"This time it's different,"_ Ryu answered with a raspy chuckle and only then did Kaito realize how nasal his voice sounded, was it a cold? _"I promise besides, I haven't been able to thank you properly for saving me."_ What? Has Kaito ever done anything worth noting to save Ryu? A sneeze cut off his train of thoughts, "Oi. You sound pretty under the weather, shouldn't you be resting?" 

_"I'm fine,"_ Ryu reassured him with a string of coughs, _"More importantly, I have something to tell you."_ Kaito went silent, letting the other talk. Was this a love confession? 

_"I wanted to say goodbye,"_ What? _"Goodbye, Kaito. I promise, even if it kills me, we'll meet again in the moonlight, my dearest magician so wait for me."_ And the line went dead. 

And he waited.

* * *

_"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." — Jyuto Iruma_

* * *

"Kaito! You have mail!" A newly returned Hakuba Saguru exclaimed from the doorway of Melpomene's,

"Kuroba-san! Are you really going to resign?" A wailing Eisuke exclaimed with loud sobs, "Eisuke! You have to respect his decision," Aoko chastised with a smack of the new supervisor's head. "Guys, I'm not gonna die. I'm just going to pursue a different career," Kaito chuckled out, accepting the neatly sealed envelope from Hakuba. "We'll visit you! And bring you packed lunches, both for you and Ren-kun!" Eisuke exclaimed once again, clinging onto Kaito's side. 

"You must have had one hell of a month, huh?" Hakuba commented and Kaito stuck his tongue at him, "You have no idea." He couldn't even comprehend what had happened over the course of a month but it basically summed up to a few key people, mainly one certain nightly caller Kaito would love to punch and kiss at the same time.

"But why the sudden career change?" Akako questioned out as Kaito went to find a letter opener, "Because I know that Melpomene's is in good hands," He answered with a small smile and a quick nudge towards Eisuke, who blushed and practically blossomed at Kaito's words, "And besides, I'd want to spend time with my family too!" 

"It's a good thing that the processing of Ren-kun's papers are going smoothly, to think I'll have a nephew soon!" Aoko dramatically sighed out, blowing her nose and waving a napkin around like an over dramatic aunt. "More importantly, I'm glad Mr. And Mrs. Tsumugi agreed to it." Eisuke added with a nod, now seemingly fine with Kaito's sudden career change.

"Yeah," Kaito agreed, packing the last of his stuff into a simple cardboard box and finally finding a usable letter opener, "We're moving to a simple apartment by the Arts School so we can both freely attend classes and I'll be able to perform in a nearby hall for my magic tricks!" And partially because it was time for him to move on, from Rui, from Hanako, from all his shackles and maybe, finally meet a certain dipshit who told him to wait.

"So, what does the letter say?" Hakuba asked curiously, peeking at the folded letter. "Haven't checked yet, gimme a moment." Kaito opened the letter and peered inside. 

Hallow's Eve  
When the moon splits in half,  
I will be waiting at the destined liars' meeting place, swayed by the waves.  
— Your Nightly Dragon

"This is...." Kaito could feel the faint tremble of his hands. The message was short and filled with absolute bollocks but to Kaito, oh it all made sense. The sender's name, the stated place, the sender's _identity_.

"Hey! Kaito! Wait up!!" Aoko shouted out as Kaito broke into a mad dash out of Melpomene's, "Kuroba-san?!!" Eisuke called out but Kaito wasn't stopping, not for anyone.

"Kaito-niichan?" Ren called out behind a stack of art supplies he was planning on bringing to their new apartment, "Where are you going?" The boy asked and Kaito just waved, "It's Papa to you, young mister! I'm going to meet a very annoying client!" 

_'The Destined Liars' Meeting Place'_ was the top of Beika's Grand Hotel, Kaito clambered up the stairs as fast as he could, his lungs were burning from over exhaustion but he couldn't stop, not until he gives the sender a good punch to the face. 

The rooftop was chilly and windy with the first hints of winter just around the corner, Kaito stood at the doorway panting and exhausted. At the very edge of the rooftop sat a lone figure with a firework and a can beside him, Kaito could almost laugh. He took a seat beside the figure who looked strikingly like him and gave his shoulder a good punch. "Ouch." 

With a puff of air, Kaito leaned his head on the other's shoulder and the two spent a few minutes is blissful silence, "How long did you know?" 

"I had my doubts at first but when you sang to me during the Garnet Prophecy Heist I was able to confirm my suspicion." The man answered sheepishly with a scratch of his cheek, Kaito couldn't believe what he was hearing. Now that pushy call he initiated made sense. 

"Were you the one who sent Haibara to me?" He shook his head, "No. She acted on her own volition after I informed her about what you're searching for, she told me that she felt guilty developing the drug." Kaito didn't know why but something told him he should thank the tiny terror the next time he sees her.

"Why did you stop calling?" Another question, another answer although this time very hesitant, "It felt selfish of me to continuously use up your time just because I enjoyed your company so I tried to distance myself, sadly it didn't work whatsoever." How laughable, Kaito couldn't bear not talking to him either.

"You were the one who told Eisuke about my identity, weren't you?" Kaito asked again, gazing at the inky black sky above and the bright lights below them. During these times were the best opportunities to fly around on his hang glider. It almost made him want to push the other off the ledge just to get revenge then immediately catch him on his hang glider.

"I initially didn't want to but I had to recruit him for the Take Down and his condition was to know who my most loved one was because I had previously told him that I had moved on from Ran," Kaito's heart refused to calm itself and Kaito was sure that he felt the same too.

"What do you mean by that, Meitantei?" 

"Just as it sounds!" He hissed out, flustered and embarrassed. "You stupid idiot, I've been dropping so many hints about me and you weren't able to figure it out earlier! Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to realize that it's been me all this time." 

"To my defense, you used your freaking voice changer thingie, I have no idea how you turned into a child and I'm not good with hints. Also! I've been waiting for you too! Don't you know how long I've been waiting for you? _'Wait for me, My Dearest Magician'_ , you said! I've been waiting for you and your stupid call for almost a month!" 

"I'm sorry but I didn't want to confront you through the phone, I wanted to tell you with my true self." The body beside him shifted to face him, Kaito lifted his head to look at the man before him and the world seemed to slow down.

"It's nice to meet you," The man before him started with a soft smile, azure eyes pristine and sparkling with happiness, "I'm Kudo Shinichi, a detective, an elementary detective and a Melpomene's client. It's an honor to finally meet the man that holds the key to my heart."

Kaito smiled a crooked smile, he let out a loud laugh, falling backwards and almost falling down. "S-Stop laughing! This was supposed to be romantic!" 

"I-I can't help it! You're such a dork!" Kaito exclaimed with a chuckle, sitting up and facing him. "My name is Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire, Moonlit Magician, Phantom Thief and your agent from Melpomene's. A pleasure to meet the biggest roller coaster of my life." He gave the biggest, brightest smile he could muster. 

"U-Uh," Shinichi stammered with a bright red blush and Kaito let out another laugh as he pulled the other into a hug. "Welcome into my life, Shinichi. I hope you're here to stay." 

"Of course, you idiot." Shinichi answered with a pout, returning the hug with his own gentle embrace, "I'll be staying here forever, with you. I still have to thank you for everything after all." 

"Good," Kaito nodded his head, "Because I'm planning on introducing you to my son as his future father so you better stay!" 

Shinichi spluttered and stammered on his words, pure and warm wrapped between Kaito's arms and something about it felt like the start of an _**Eternal Love**_

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! 
> 
> Yes, this is my Fictober/Halloween Fic. (Nothing scarier than a fresh batch of angst and sadness after all!)  
> Yes, this is also an excuse for writing lots of Eisuke.  
> Yes, I know I suck at romance.
> 
> Well, moving on XD
> 
> Here are the actual notes, behind the scenes, things you probably didn't notice of this Fic,
> 
> * Melpomene's was originally going to be called Melpomene's Hymn, if you're wondering why Kaito sings a lot in this Fic, it's because of the original name of the hotline. (lol)  
> * A lot of the characters' names here in this Fic start with an 'R' (Ryu, Ren, Rui, Rin) mostly because I referenced it to the Vocaloid Song, _My R_ which can actually pass off as Kaito's theme for this Fic.  
>  * Kaito is actually the only one who says 'Help Hotline' amongst all of the workers. Everyone else says, 'Suicide Hotline' as a greeting.  
> * I know the relationships here in this Fic are wonky but fear not, I'll try to do better on the next Fic. X3  
> * This Fic can be taken as Pre-Slash, Slash, or & and that's absolutely fine because my original intention were to show Kai and Shin as a family, platonically or sexually is solely up to you.  
> * The songs used (in order) are Sleeping at Last's _Six, Five, Four, Three, Two and One_ along with Michael Bublé's _Haven't met you yet_ and yes, it's a countdown. 
> 
> And that's it! Thank you for taking the time to read this monster and I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> Leave a Kudo if you liked it and maybe a comment/review? <3 
> 
> Till next time, see you~!


End file.
